- •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.
The Strong Declension of Nouns
A noun was considered to be strong if it had a vowel stem. A stem is a sound (a vowel or a consonant) standing between the root and the flexion.
To the nouns of the so-called a - stem belong masculine and neuter nouns. All the masculine and neuter nouns are declined like that:
Masculine Neuter (monosyll)
Sing. Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Short syllable Long syllable
N stān stānas scip scipu ‘ship’ bān bān ‘bone’
G stānes stāna scipes scipa bānes bāna
D stāne stānum scips scipum bāne bānum
A stān stānas scip scipu bān bān
The declension of a neuter a-stem noun depends on the quantity of syllables in the word and also on the length of the root vowel.
Nouns having more than one syllable with a short root vowel were declined like this (resed «house»):
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Short syllable Long syllable
Neuter N. reced reced ‘building nīeten nīetenu
(dissyllabic) G. recedes recede nīetenes nīetena
D. recede recedum nīetene nīetenum
A. reced reced nīeten nīetenu
ja - declension of nouns. These nouns a special type of a-stems. Their root vowel undergoes mutation under the influence of an original -j- in the stem:
Masculine Neuter
N ende endas cyn (n) cyn (n)
G endes enda cynnes cynna
D ende endum cynne cynnum
A ende endas cyn (n) cyn (n)
The difference between the pure and wa - stem is that «w» appeared before the flexion in all the cases except N. and Acc. Singular:
Sing p1 sing p1
N bearu (masc. wood) bearwas bealu bealu
G bearwes bearwa bealwes bealwa
D bearwe bearwum bealwe bealwum
A bearu bearwas bealwu bealu
o - stem. Only feminine nouns belong to this stem:
N fõr fõra
G fõre fõra
D fõre fõrum
A fõre fõra
To jo - stem also belong feminine nouns. These are a special type of o-stems. Their root vowel has undergone mutation induced by an original -j- in the stem:
N bryc3 bryc3a ‘bridge’
G bryc3e bryc3a
D bryc3e bryc3um
A bryc3e bryc3a
wo-stem. These are also a special of o-stems:
N mǣd ( луг) mǣdwa sceadu sceadwa ‘shade’
G mǣdwe mǣdwa scedwe sceadwa
D mǣdwe mǣdwum sceadwe sceadwum
A mǣdwe mǣdwa sceadwe sceadwa
i-stem. Nouns of all the three genders may belong to it. The root vowel has undergone mutation:
N hyll hyllas ‘hill’ (masc.)
G hylles hylla
D hylle hyllum
A hyll hyllas
u-stem. Masculine and feminine nouns belonged:
Masculine Feminine
Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur.
N sunu suna duru dura ‘door’
G suna suna dura dura
D suna sunum dura durum
A sunu suna duru dura