Verbals

In OE there were three Verbals: Infinitive, Participle I and Participle II, or Past Participle. The nominal features were the most distinct.

The Infinitive

The Infinitive originated as a verbal noun and had two forms corresponding to the Nominative and Dative cases, but it had no verbal categories. It could be used as a subject, and it could follow aspect and modal verbs. When it followed a verb of motion it denoted the purpose of the action. Typically in the Dative case it was preceded by the preposition ‘to,’ and this later became the Infinitive marker: hē com tō drincennce – он пришел чтобы пить.

The declined form of the Infinitive could be also used as a part of a compound verbal predicate. When not declined, the Infinitive was used as an object as a part of a compound verbal predicate after a preterite-present verb, as well as in the Accusative Infinitive constructions. When the Infinitive was used after a transitive verb with a direct object, the direct object and the Infinitive formed the Accusative Infinitive construction. This construction typically appeared after verbsof sense perception (seon, hyran).

The Participle

The Participle was a verbal adjective. There were two participles – Participle I and Participle II, or Past Participle. Participle I was built by adding the suffix -ende to the verb stem: cēosende – хватающий.

The Past Participle of strong verbs was marked by a certain grade of vowel interchange and the suffix –en: ʒeʒripen - схваченный ; Participle II of weak verbs was characterized by the dental suffix -d/-t. The Past Participle could also be marked by the prefix ʒe- : funden (NE ‘found’), demed (NE ‘deemed’), ʒe-bunded (NE ‘bound’).

The prefix ‘ʒe- ’ was used a perfective aspect marker and could be added to any verb form. Since the participle was most often used perfectively, if the verb didn’t have its own prefix, the ‘ʒe-’ prefix was added.

Participle I denoted processes and qualities simultaneous with those of the finite verb forms. The Past Participle expressed states and qualities as a result of a past action. The Past Participle of transitive verbs was used to express passivity. Participles were used as predicatives and attributes, and they agreed with the noun they modified in case, number and gender.

Numerals in OE

OE numerals were divided into cardinal and ordinal numerals. These OE numerals had greater nominal features than those in NE.

Cardinal numerals were used attributively or independently. The first three numerals distinguished gender and case. 1- ān, 2 - twēʒen, twā, 3 – þrīe, þrīo.

The numeral ‘ān’ had a weak form ‘āna’ which had the meaning ‘alone’.

		masculine	neuter	feminine
2	Nominative	twēʒen	twā, tū	twā
	Accusative
	Genitive	twēġa, twēġra
	Dative	twǣm, twām
3	Nominative	þrīe	þrēo	þrēo
	Accusative
	Genitive	þrēora
	Dative	þrim

The numerals from 4 to 19 were indeclinable when used as attributes, but if used independently or in post-position they declined: 4 – fēower, 5- fīf, 6- siex, 7- seofon, 8 - eahte, 9 – nigon, 10-tīen, 11- endleofan, 12- twelf.

The numerals from 13 to 19 were formed by adding the suffixes –tīen / - tīene to numerals from 1 to 9: þrēotīene, fēowertīene, etc. From twenty through the sixties, numbers are in the form ān and twentiġ ‘twenty-one’.

For numerals from 70 to 100 the element ‘hund’- was added to the beginning of the word: 70 - hundseofontiġ , 80 - hundeahtatiġ , 90 – hundnigontiġ, 100 - hundtēontiġ or ān hund ‘one hundred’, 120-hundtwelftiġ or hundtwentiġ ‘one hundred and twenty’. These curious forms seem to reflect a number system, common to all the earliest Germanic languages, in which counting proceeded by twelves and sixty was a significant number in much the same way that one hundred is now.

Ordinal numerals: первый – forma, fyrmesta, fyrest; второй – ōðer; третий – þridda, четвертый – fēowerða, пятый – fifta, шестой – siexta, седьмой – seofoða , восьмой – eahtoða , девятый – nigoða, десятый – tēoða, одиннадцатый – endlefta, двенадцатый – twelfta.

The numerals from 13 to 19 were formed with the help of the suffix –tēoða: 13 – þrēotēoða, numerals from 20 to 120 were built with the suffix -tigoða, -tegoða or -teogoða: 50 - fīfteogoða ‘fiftieth’, 85 - fīf and hundeahtatigoða ‘eighty-fifth’.

The ordinal numerals were mostly declined as weak adjectives. Some of them ultimately created adverbs twiwa – twise, ðriwa – thrice.