- •Categories of the Verb in me
- •4.Changes within the system of Strong and Weak verbs in me
- •The Old English vowel System
- •5. The Morphological Classification of the oe verbs.
- •Irregular verbs
- •6 Rise of the Article System in me.
- •7The oe Consonant System
- •8Changes within the Adjective System in me
- •9The Non-Finite forms of the Verb in oe.
- •10Changes within the Pronoun System in me.
- •12 Changes within the Noun System in me.
- •11Oe vowels. Development of Vowels in Unstressed Syllables in oe.
- •13Principal features of Germanic Languages.
- •14 Changes within the consonant s to system in me.
- •17Word stress in Indo-European and Common Germanic
- •15Strong, Weak, Preterito-Present and Anomalous verbs in oe.
- •Strong verbs
- •Weak verbs
- •16Formation of New Diphthongs in me.
- •20Me vowels: Quantitative changes.
- •21Verner’s Law. Rhotacism
- •22Me vowels: Qualitative changes
- •Middle English New English
- •Middle English New English
- •Middle English New English
- •23Common Germanic Vowel Shift, Common Germanic Fracture Germanic Vowel Shift
- •24Scandinavian Borrowings in Middle e.
- •Many words with k sound before e and I, numerous words with sk sound are to be assigned to Scandinavian origin. Pronoun same and pronominal forms with initial th – they, their, them.
- •26French Borrowings in me.
- •27Indo-European and Germanic Ablaut
- •28Reduction of Vowels in Final Unstressed Syllable in me
- •Oe writan – wrat – writon – written
- •Written – wrot- written – written
- •29Basic grammatical Features of Germanic Languages.
- •32Changes within the System of Vowels in me
- •Oe writan – wrat – writon – written
- •Written – wrot- written – written
- •Quantitative changes
- •Lengthening of vowels
- •35Periods in the History of English
- •The period of lost endings
- •Changes within the Consonant System in Early New English
- •34. General characteristic of Middle English Grammar
- •The old English vowel system. Phonological Processes in oe and their Traces in Modern English (oe Breaking, Velar Umlaut, I-Umlaut, Palatal Diphon)
- •Umlauts
- •Development of vocabulary in Mod e.
- •Indian: bungalow, indigo Chinese: coolie, tea
- •46. The Linguistic Consequences of the Scandinavian Invasion.
- •The categories of the oe adjective and their further development
- •48. The Linguistic Consequences of the Norman Conquest.
- •Development of vowels in oe
- •Formation of the national literary English Language
- •Latin Borrowings thought the development of the English language
- •The declension of the Noun in oe. Types of stems.
- •Vowel-stems. Declension of a-stem nouns.
- •55. Me dialects.
- •Development of Consonants in oe
- •Development of Non-finite forms of the Verb in the English language
- •Participle I. Has the ending –ende and is declined as a weak adjective. It is used attributively (in pre- and post-position) and predicative.
- •Grammatical categories of the Noun in oe.
- •The pronoun in oe
- •The adjective in oe
- •Changes within the verb system in Modern English
- •You shall do it – necessity
- •I will do it – volition
- •I should be present – to show events which are probable, though problematic
- •I should be present – to show imaginary events contrary to fact.
- •Verbal grammatical categories in oe
- •Ic write (singular) We writa.. (plural) tense
- •Strong verbs in oe
- •Weak verbs in oe
- •Class II – the stem suffix –oi
- •Latin borrowings thought the development of the English language
- •Verbs ending in –ate, -ute
- •Peretrite-present verbs in oe and their further development
- •Oe vocabulary
Development of Consonants in oe
The OE consonant system consisted of some 14 consonant phonemes. The consonant system in OE manifested the following peculiarities.
The relatively small number of consonant phonemes.
The absence of affricated and fricative consonants which we now find in the language such as [t ], [d ], [ ], [ ].
Dependence of the quality of the phoneme upon its environment in the word
If the first two require no particular explanation, the last point calls for a special comment.
Among the 14 consonant phonemes that exited in OE there were at least 5 that gave us positional variants which stand rater wide apart.
1. The phonemes denoted by the letters f, p, , or s are voiced or voiceless depending upon their phonetic position. They are generally voiced in the so-called “intervocal position” that is between vowels and voiceless otherwise.
2. The phoneme denoted by the letter c also gave at least two variant – palatal [k] and velar [k]. In the majority of cases it was a velar consonant and palatal generally before the vowel i.
3. Similar remarks can be made about the phoneme denoted by the letter : we have the voiced velar plosive variant [g] of it at the beginning of the word before back vowels or consonants or in the middle of the word after n. The voiced velar fricative variant [ ] in the middle of the word between back vowels. The voice palatal fricative variant [j] before and after front vowels.
The system of consonant phonemes that we observe in OE involves certain peculiarities that are typical of the majority of Germanic dialects, which set them apart from the majority of the Indo-European languages.
Development of Non-finite forms of the Verb in the English language
The verb system in OE was represented by two sets of forms: the finitive of the verb and the non-finitive forms of the verb. Those two types of forms differed more than they do today from the point of view of their respective grammatical categories, as the verbals at that historical period were not conjugated like the verb proper, but were declined like nouns or adjectives. Thus the infinitive could have two case-forms, which may conventionally be called the “Common” case and the “Dative” case.
The Non-finite forms are: the Infinitive and the two Participles.
The Infinitive. There are two infinitive forms: one of them is called the dative Infinitive(the Indo-European infinitive had been a declinable noun). This infinitive is preceded by to and has the ending –anne; it is used in independent syntactic positions, mainly as adverbial modifier of purpose, but also as subject and predicative. The infinitive with the ending –an functions, as a rule, in combination with preterite-present verbs and in other verbal collocations.
Participle I. Has the ending –ende and is declined as a weak adjective. It is used attributively (in pre- and post-position) and predicative.
Participle II. Has the ending –n or –ed, -od, according to the type of verb (strong or weak). It is declined as adjective (according both to the strong and the weak pattern) and is used mainly as attribute and predicative.
A comparison of the verbals in OE and in Middle and New English shows that the number of verbals in OE was less than that in Middle English and New. At the end of the ME period a new verbal developed – the GERUND. In addition to the Infinitive and the Participle. The Gerund appeared as a result of a blend between the OE Present Participle ending in “-ende” and the OE Verbal noun ending in “-ing”. From the Verbal noun the Gerund acquired the form, but under the influence of the Participle it became more “verbal” in meaning. In the course of history the Infinitive (already at the end of the OE period) and the Participle (in Middle English) lost their declension. And at the end of the ME and in New English they acquired elements of conjugation – the grammatical categories of order and voice. The OE preposition to preceding the dative case of the infinitive loses its independent meaning and functions simply as a grammatical particle showing that the Verbal is an Infinitive.