28. The oe verb, its gram. Categories and morphological types.

The OE verb had numerous persons, number cases, but fewer gram. categ. than Mod. verbs have.

The verb-predicate agreed with the subj. in 2 gram. cat.:

1. number: sg/pl.;

2. person was shown in the Pres. Tense of the Ind. Mood sg. Eg: hē binderþ (he binds) – 3^rd pers sg.

Mood:

1. Indicative – finde → Infin.- findan (sg)

2. Imperative – find

3. Subjective – finde

Tense: Present, Past.

Morphological types:

1. Strong verbs (purely of OE origin) form their Past tense by changing their root vowel. R. – беру – брал. Strong verbs represent an unproductive type.

4 forms: writan (Infin), wrāt (Past sg), writon (Past pl), written (Past Participle).

2. Weak verbs form their tense with a help of –d/-t (dental suffix) → productive type; Germanic origin.

3 forms: maxean (Infin), maxode (Past sg), maxod (Participle II). Eg: maxodon – Past pl.

3. Preterent - Present (12^th cent). Their present forms were once past tense forms. Eg: dugan (avail), cunnan (can), magan (may).

4. Anomalous (irregular). The forms are derived from different roots. Eg: bēon: ist (1^st pers. sg), wæron (Past pl), wæst (Past sg.). Also: dōn (do), gān (go), willan (will).

15. Major vowel changes in ne. Great Vowel Shift. Vocalization of [r].

The short vowels were more stable.

1. ME [α] – NE [æ] man – mæn

after w (a) → o wæs > wαs > [woz]

2. ME short “u” lost its labial character and became [۸] except in some dialects. Eg: ME ‘comen’ [kumen] > NE come [k۸m].

3. lengthening before –ss, -ft, -nt, -st;

4. shortening before sing. dental and velar cons. [e:], [u:] before ∂, θ.

the Great Vowel Shift (O. Gerpersen 14^th cent.)

Short Vowels:

i>i>I sitten – sit [sit]

y>i>i byllan>bill [bil]

æ>a>æ æppel>apple [æpl]

u>u>۸ under>under [۸ndə]

e>e>e bedd>bed [bed]

o>o>o god>god [god]

a>a>æ cat>cat [kæt]

Long vowels:

ī>ī>āī tīme>time [taim]

yˉ>ī>āī myˉs-mice [mais]

e>e>i: metan-meet [mi:t]

æ>æ>i: sæ>sea [si:]

ū>ū>au hūs>house [haus]

ā>ā>ou rād>road [roud]

a>a>ei nama>name [neim]

[r] was vocalized to the neutral vowel [ә] when final or before another consonant in the 17^th cent. Eg: far [faә], bird As a result a number of new vowels appeared in E: a: (far), o: (fork), ε: (girl). Also such new diphthongs appeared iә, uә, εә (here, care, sure); thriphthongs [auә, ouә] (our, lower) + lengthening: arm, four

Intrusive [r] – that’s not found in the word but it’s pronounced.

23. Changes in the noun system in me and ne.

In ME the muscul gender became the main. the gender lost its inflections. The OE Nom, Acc, Dat cases fell together into Common case.

The Gen used to denote possession → becomes possessive case.

In ME the pl usually take –es which is the continuation of OE –as.

Process of simplification:

• changing in the structure of the word;

• fluctuation of gender. Also the principle of analogy – ability of the language to adapt a less common form to a more widely used one. Eg: черное кофе.

• Adj – an unchangeable part of speech (except for the degrees of comparison).