Middle English Pronouns

Personal pronouns in ME have the following forms:

Singular

1 person 2 person 3person 3 person

Nominative: ich, I thou he (m.), shē (f.), hit, it (n.)

Objective: mē thē him, hir, her hit, it.

Plural

Nominative: wē yē hī, they.

Objective: ūs you hem, them.

If we compare ME personal pronouns to those in OE we see that some changes took place:

1. The dual number pronouns disappeared.

2. The genitive case formed a separate group of possessive pronouns.

3. The dative case and the accusative case formed together one the objective case.

4. The third person plural hī was substituted by the Scandinavian they with case forms their and them.

5. Initial h- of the neuter pronoun hit was often lost.

6. A new form for the 3 person singular feminine appeared -shē.

1 2 3

mīn, mī thīn, thī his (m), hir, her (f.), his (n)

our your hire, their

The demonstrative pronouns

The OE forms of the demonstrative pronoun (or definite article) sē, sēō were changed into ƥe, ƥeo on the analogy of the forms derived from the root ƥ-. In Early ME forms like ƥe, ƥeo, ƥat functioned both as demonstrative pronoun and as article. Since the 14^th century, however, the form ƥat was only preserved as a demonstrative pronoun form.

Early ME declension

The pronoun ƥe, ‘that’

Singular Plural

Masculine Feminine Neuter

N. ƥe, ƥeo ƥat, ƥet ƥeo, ƥe

G. ƥes, ƥ ƥer ƥes, ƥe ƥer, ƥe

D. ƥen, ƥan ƥer ƥen, ƥan, ƥe ƥen, ƥe

A. ƥene, ƥe ƥeo ƥat, ƥet, ƥe ƥeo, ƥe

The relative pronouns. For all the genders in the nominative case and in the accusative case the pronoun that was used. Later on two other pronouns came to be used as relative pronouns. They were the pronouns which with the plural form whiche and who.

The interrogative pronouns:

N. whõ what

G. whõs whõs

Obj. whõm what

Middle English Verbs

Strong verbs. In OE there were 7 classes of strong verbs, in the ME period the number of classes remained the same, but they underwent so many changes, that the forms of the verbs belonging to different classes became very much alike. Thus, the endings of the past indefinite plural and of the past participle forms which were different in OE became alike -n (-en) in ME.

1) Infinitive Past Singular Past Plural Second Participle

I. OE writan wrãt writon writen

2) ME wrīten wrõt writen writen

II. OE bēodan bēad budon boden

II. ME bēden bēd bõden bõden

III. OE drincan dranc druncon druncen

ME drinken drank drõnken dronken

IV. OE stellan stæl stǣlon stolen

ME stelen stal stēlen stolen

V. OE getan gæt gæton geten

ME geten gat geten geten

VI. OE faran fõr fõron faren

ME faren fõr fõren faren

VII. OE feallan feoll feollon feallen

ME fallen fell fellen fallen

The verbs belonging to the 4^th and to 5^th classes coincided in most of the forms and there arose a possibility for these verbs to pass from one class into another and thus many of the verbs that in OE belonged to the 5^th class moved to the 4^th class, changing the letter «e» in the past participle form into «o»: spëken - spoken.

Middle English weak verbs. In ME there remained 3 classes of weak verbs, but they underwent many changes. The verbs of the 1^st class changed the suffix of the infinitive «-ian > an > en ». The verbs of the second class changed the suffix of the past indefinite «-ode > ede > od > ed: OE macian > macode > macod; ME maken > makede > maked. Thus the forms of the verbs of the first and the second classes became identical and this fact favoured the migration of the second class verbs into the first class. The characteristic feature of the 3^rd class verbs in OE was the doubling of the root consonants in the infinitive. In ME the verbs of the 3^rd class lost this characteristic feature, the doubling of the root consonants in the infinitive disappeared and these verbs became very much alike with the 1^st class verbs: habban > haven; libban > liven;

In the 14^th century, in some weak verbs with a stem ending in -l, - n, - f, -v the past -d changed into -t:

OE dælan - dælde - dæled ‘divide’ ME delen - delte - delt;

OE læfan - læfde - læfed ‚leave’ ME lëven - lefte (lafte) - left (laft);

Verbs with a stem in -rd, -nd, -ld formed their past in -rte, -nte, -lte, and their second participle in -rt, -nt, -lt:

OE rendan - rende - rend ‘rend’ ME renden - rente - rent;

OE sendan - sende - send ‘send’ ME senden - sente - sent.

The conjugation of verbs in ME. The conjugation system of verbs in ME also underwent simplification. As a result of levelling the difference between the endings -en, on, en disappeared, the final consonant -n was also

lost: Present Past

Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Indicative Subjunctive

Sing. 1. bīnde bīnde --- bõnd bounde

2. bīndest bīnde bīnd bounde bounde

3. bīndeth, bīnt bīnde ---- bõnd bounde

Pl. bīnden bīnden binde(th) bounden bounden

Infinitive ParticipleI Participle II

bīnden bïndinge bounden