13. The development of monophthongs in me.

The OE close labialized vowels [y, y:] disappeared in early ME, in some dialects they were replaced by:

[y, y:] → e. e: in Kentish

i, i: in Wessex;

The long OE [a:] was narrowed to [o:] – stan OE – stone NE

11^th cent – monophthongization of OE diphthongs: æ˘ˉa>ā˘, ē˘ Eg: stream > strēm

eō˘>ē˘

1. the GVS, 14^th cent.

i: → ai time ME – time

e: → i: field ME – field

ε: → i: east ME – east

a: → ei table ME – table

כּ: → ou soo – so

o: → u: goos – goose

u: → au mous – mouse

au → כּ: cause – couse

24. The OE adj and its further development in ME&NE.

OE adj possess 3 categories:

1. gender (m, f, n);

2. number (sg, pl);

3. case (5).

Main features of the adj:

1. repeated the grammatical categories of noun that they modify;

2. 2 types of declension

   1. strong (a, l, o - stems of noun; call, manig – always str.);

   2. weak (n – stems, i, l, c, a – “same” – always weak);

3. 3 degrees of comparison:

   1. Positive (scort)

   2. comparative (-ra);

   3. superlative (-est/ -ost);

Suppletive forms:

gōd – beltra – bet(e)st;

lүˉtel - læˉssa - læˉst

micel – māra - mæˉst (much)

R – лучший – лучше

4. 5 cases (Nom, Gen., Dat, Accus, Instr. (lүˉtte werede – малым войском).

In ME it became unchangeable part of speech (except for the degree of comparison). The first category to disappear was gender, the Inst case fused with Dat. But at the end of 13^th cent cases were lost.

In ME the degrees of comparison could be build in the same way, only the suffix had been weakened to –er; -est.

The changing of vowels in Early NE survived in old, elder, eldest where the difference in meaning from older – oldest made distinction. Also in father/ further.

26. The oe personal pronouns and its futher development in me and ne.

OE personal pronouns had 3 persons, 3 numbers (sing, pl, dual) and 3 genders. Eg: ic – sing, wit – dual, wē – plural. Dual number – Germanic feature (wit – мы оба, git – вы оба).

Gender was in the 3^rd person sing. Eg: hē – hēo – hit (m – f – n).

Cases: m f n

N ic þэīī hē hēo hit

G min þin his hire his

D mē þe him hire him

Acc me þe hine hie hit

1^st pers. sg→2^nd pers.sg→3^rd pers. sg.

Many forms have survived in ME. Eg: “and I’ll love thee”.

In OE – a tendency toward harmony which increased in ME.

The fem. pronoun of the 3^rd pers. And mascul. pron. of the 3^rd per. could become identical. The language developed new ways:

1. The pl. “hie” is replaced by Sc (от скандинав.)“they” (13^th);

2. The object case represented by Sc “them” (OE hem);

3. The fem “hēo” → shē (ME) → she (NE) (as hēo was homonymous to hē; hit. The language discriminated this form, “he” – survived.

4. dual number pron. have disappeared;

5. possessive pron have appeared from Germ.

6. the new pron. “there” appeared (Sc);

7. In NE:

   • the pron of the 2^nd pers. sg went out of use in the 17^th cent → “you” for sg and pl, the 2^nd pl “you” replaced “gē” OE.

   • Late ME “she” is believed to have developed from the OE demonstrative pron of the femin. gender – “sēo”

   • the other forms of OE “hēo” were preserved “hire/her” used in ME as the Obj. case and as a possessive pron. is a form of OE “hēo”. “Hers” was derived from “hire/here”.