- •Introductory lecture The History of the English language-Subject and the aims of the History of the English language.
- •Lecture 1 The Origin of the English Language
- •The Anglo-Saxon Conquest
- •Formation of Germanic States in Britain
- •The Writing and the Written monuments of oe
- •The Three Periods in the History of the English Language
- •Phonetic Structure of the oe Vowels
- •The Ablaut (Gradation)
- •Mutation (umlaut)
- •Monophtongs
- •Diphtongs
- •Lengthening of vowels
- •Palatalization
- •Palatalization of consonants
- •Other changes and loss of consonants
- •Lecture4 The Grammar Structure of Old English
- •Morphology. Nouns
- •The Strong Declension of Nouns
- •The weak declension of nouns
- •A separate group of nouns.
- •Old English Adjectives
- •Old English Pronouns
- •Lecture5 The Old English Verb
- •Infinitive Past Past Second
- •Indef. Past Indef. Sing. Past Indef. Plural Past Participle
- •The conjugation of verbs
- •Strong verbs
- •Preterite - present verbs
- •Lecture6 old english syntax
- •The meaning of case forms
- •The usage of pronouns
- •Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Indicative Subjunctive
- •The category of mood in oe
- •Lecture 7 Historical change The reason for studying historical change
- •The importance of text analysis
- •The Middle English Period
- •Lexical influence of the French language
- •The formation of the English national language
- •Lecture 8 Phonetic changes in me
- •Consonant changes
- •Spelling changes in the period after the Norman Conquest
- •General view of the me sound system
- •Lecture 9 Middle English Morphology
- •Middle English Pronouns
- •The demonstrative pronouns
- •Middle English Verbs
- •Lecture 10 Middle English Syntax
- •Lecture 11 The Modern English Period The formation of the English national language
- •Phonetic changes. Vowels.
- •Consonants
- •Voicing and Voiceless Fricatives.
- •Loss of Consonants in Clusters.
- •Loss of consonants in initial clusters
- •Lecture 12 Grammatical changes.
- •Morphology. The Substantive.
- •Interrogative
- •Impersonal and Personal Constructions.
Indef. Past Indef. Sing. Past Indef. Plural Past Participle
1) wrītan wrãt writon written (to write)
2) cēosan cēas curon coren (to choose)
3) findan fand funden funden (to find)
helpan healp hulpon holpen (to help)
feohtan feaht fuhton fohten (to fight)
4) beran bær bǣron boren (to bear)
srelan stæl stǣlon stolen (to steal)
wesan wæs wǣron weren (to be)
5) biddan bæd bǣdon beden (beg)
6) faran fãr fõren feren (to travel)
7) hātan hēt hēton hãten (to call)
The Infinitive had the an ending.
The Past Indefinite Singular -no ending.
The Past Indefinite Plural -on.
The Past Participle -en.
Old English weak verbs. Weak verbs form their principal forms by means of adding a dental suffix to the root of the infinitive -ede - ode - d - t. Weak verbs have only 3 principal forms as there is no difference between the plural and the singular of the Past Indefinite. Weak verbs have three classes. The first class is subdivided into 2 subclasses. The first subclass consists of the so-called regular verbs or the verbs which retain the traces of the i-umlaut on all the three forms: deman-demde-demed (domiad) «судить», fremman - fremede - fremed (выполнять). The second subclass consists of irregular verbs as they had the i-umlaut only in the Infinitive form: tellan - tealde - teald; a+1d = ea.
Most of the verbs of the first class are the so-called causative verbs, it means verbs with the idea of making somebody or something fulfill the action of the corresponding strong verb: to sit - set.
Causative verbs were formed of the Past Indefinite forms of strong verbs by adding the suffix- ian:
sittan - sat - sitton - sitten
sat+ian - settan - weak;
sedate - sedet
The second class. The verbs of the second class formerly had the element oja in the Infinitive and the sound [o] in the Past Indefinite. But in OE only the sound [o] remained in the Past Indefinite. The characteristic features of the verbs of the second class are: i in the suffix of the Infinitive causing no i-umlaut and the suffix of the Past Indefinite being -ode: macian - mocode - macod; lufian (Inf.) -lufode (Past) -lufod (Second Participle) (love). The third class of the OE verbs: the suffix of the past and the second participle is joined on to the root. In two class III verbs, sec3(e)an (say) and hyc3(e)an (think) the infinitive has mutation which is seen by comparing it with the past and the second participle. Mutation could obviously be due only to an -i- in the suffix. This peculiarity brings these verbs close to class I verbs. In the verbs habban - hæfde - hæfd (have); libban - lifde - lifd (live) no mutation is found.