2. Morphological classification of verbs in Middle English and New English

2.0. The subdivision of Old English verbs into strong and weak is preserved with modifications in Middle English.

2.1. Strong verbs

2.1.1. Classes of the strong verbs

In New English, however, the original regularity that was observed in the group of strong verbs in Old English and partly in Middle English is no longer felt due to the following:

1. Splitting of original classes into subclasses, for example:

Old English New English

rise – rose – risen

First class rīsan – rās – rison – risen

Bītan – bāt – biton – bitten

bite – bit – bitten

2. Some strong verbs of one class entering another class. Thus, the Old English verb of the 5^th class:

Sprecan – spræcon – sprǽcon – sprecen

passed into the 5^th class in Middle English with the forms:

speken – spak – speken – spoken

on analogy with such verbs as:

stelen – stal – stelen – stolen

3. Passing of some strong verbs into the group of weak verbs and (rarely) vice versa. For example:

Old English New English

I class gripan to grip

glidan to glide

II class crēopan to creep

Lēoзan to lie

III class climban to climb

Helpan to help

IV class bacan to bake

wæcnan to wake

The contrary process, as we have already said, is quite rare:

Old English New English

hŷdan to hide

wærian to wear

4. But some weak verbs acquired only some features of the strong verbs, like the Old English weak verb scēawian – Modern English show, showed, but shown.

2.1.2. Principal forms of the strong verbs

The strong verbs in Old English had four principal forms, for example:

writan – wrāt – writon – written (to write)

bindan – band – bundon – bunden (to shake)

In Middle English, however, they exhibited a marked tendency to have the same vowel in both the forms of the past tense, thus gradually reducing the number of the principal forms to three. In New English we have only three principal forms in verbs originally belonging to the group of strong verbs:

write – wrote – written

The vowel that is preserved in the past tense is generally traced back to the vowel of Old English past tense singular. For example:

Old English Middle English New English

I class wrāt wrōt wrote (to write)

II class scōc shōk shook (to shake)

But sometimes it is the vowel of the original past tense plural:

Old English bitan – bāt – biton – bitten

Middle English bitten – bot – bitten – bitten

New English bite – bit – bitten

with the past tense form deriving its vowel from the past tense plural form of the verb.

Sometimes the vowel of the past tense form was borrowed from the form of the past participle:

Old English stelan – stæl - stǽlon –stolen

Middle English stelen – stal – stelen – stolen

New English steal – stolen – stolen