Old english morphology

1. Give the plural of the following OE nouns.

1) dæZ “day” (a-stem m.) 2) word “word” (a-stem n.) 3) dēōr “animal” (a-stem n.) 4) oxa “ox” (n-stem m.) 5) fōt “foot” (root-stem m.).

2. Explain the absence of the plural inflexion in SHEEP, DEER, SWINE.

3. Examine the following OE nouns to determine their stem suffixes. All of them are given in the Nominative case plural.

1. heortan “hearts” 2) brōþor “brothers” 3) cildru “children” 4) stānas “stones”.

4. The following OE nouns are cited in the Dative case singular which coincided with the Nominative and Accusative plural.

State the type of the stem and determine the Nominative singular form of each noun.

1) сy 2) lys 3) bēc 4) Zæt 5) fyrh 6) æc 7) byriZ.

5. What is the gender of each of the underlined nouns?

1) sēō ceaster “that camp” 2) þæt scip “that ship” 3) sē tūn “that homestead” 4) þēs blostm “this blossom” 5) þēōs talu “this tale” 6) þis land “this land” 7) þā word “those words”.

6. State the number, gender and case of nouns in the phrases given.

1) on þæm dæZe “(on) that day” 2) hira manna “of their men” 3) on þæm daZum “(on) those days” 4) þā bōc “that book” 5) þā bēc “those books” 6) þone here “that army” 7) þā swīn “those swine”.

7. In the following phrases determine the case, number, gender and the type of declension of each adjective.

1) þā ricostan men “the richest men” 2) þone mæstan dæl “the biggest part” 3) swyðe mycel ēā “very big river” 4) fram þære hālZan lāre “from that holy script” 5) ZunZum mannum “(to) young men” 6) tamra dēōra “tame animals” 7) habbað māran spēda “(they) have greater riches” 8) þā swiftan hors “those swift horses”.

8. Give the comparative and superlative forms of these OE adjectives.

1) ZeonZ “young” 2) eald “old” 3) stronZ “strong” 4) lonZ “long” 5) lytel “little” 6) micel “large” 7) yfel “bad” 8) Zōd “good” 9) Zlæd “glad” 10) wilde “wild”.

9. Give the Latin counterparts of the OE personal pronouns IC and ĐŪ and explain the sound correspondencies between the related forms.

10. What OE pronominal forms gave rise to the MnE possessive pronouns?

11. Compare the Nominative dual of OE personal pronouns with their equivalents in Lithuanian to determine the origin of – t in the OE forms.

1) 1^st person OE wit – Lith mudu 2) 2^nd person OE Zit – Lith judu.

12. Give the OE equivalents of the following pronominal forms of MnG.

1. ich 2) mich 3) mein 4) du 5) dich 6) dein 7) ihn 8) ihm 9) uns.

13. Examine the principal forms of the Gth strong verb REISAN /ri:san/ “rise” of class I and its OE counterpart RĪSAN. Determine the root vowel correspondences between the two sets of related forms.

Gth reisan – rais – risun – risans; OE rīsan – rās – rison – risen.

14. Build the principal forms of the following OE strong verbs of class I.

1) stīZan “climb” 2) Zewītan “go” 3) scrīfan “prescribe”.

15. Examine the principal forms of the Gth strong verb BIUDAN “command” of class II and its OE counterpart BĒŌDAN to explain the root vowels in the related forms.

Gth biudan – baud – budun – budans; OE bēōdan – bēād – budon – boden.

16. Give the principal forms of the following OE strong verbs of class II.

1) cēōrfan “carve” 2) drēōsan “fall” 3) flēōtan “flow”.

17. Supply the missing principal forms of the following OE strong verbs of class III.

1) windan “wind” – ? – wundon – ? 2) ? – spranZ “(he) jumped” – ? – sprunZen 3) winnan “fight” – ? – ? – wunnen.

18. Explain the root vowel changes in the principal forms of the Gth strong verb BAIRAN /bε:ran/ of class IV and its OE counterpart BERAN.

Gth bairan – bar – berun – baurans; OE beran – bær – bæron – boren.

19. Build the principal forms of the following OE strong verbs of class IV.

1) teran “tear” 2) brecan “break” 3) helan “conceal”.

20. Compare the principal forms of the Gth verb QIĐAN /´kwiOan/ “speak” (class V) and its OE counterpart CWEĐAN and comment on the root vowel correspondences between the two sets of forms.

Gth qiþan – qaþ – qeþun qiþans; OE cweðan – cwæð – cwædon – cweden.

21. Build the principal forms of the following OE strong verbs of class V.

1) tredan “tread” 2) sprecan “speak” 3) wrecan “avenge”.

22. The OE verbs ALAN “grow” has the following principal forms: alan – ōl – ōlōn – alen. Determine the class of this verb. What type of ablaut is used in this class?

23. Build the principal forms of the following OE strong verbs of class VI.

1) standan “stand” 2) wadan “wade” 3) bacan “bake” 4) wascan “wash”.

24. Examine the principal forms of the Gth strong verb HAITAN of class VII. What means of form building were originally used in this class?

haitan – haihait – haihaitun – haitans

25. What archaic features can be observed in these past tense singular forms of OE verbs of class VII?

1) heht “called” 2) leolc “played” 3) reord “advised”.

26. The following OE verbs are cited in both their infinitive and past singular forms. Classify the verbs according to the traditional division of OE verbs into strong and weak.

1) tæcan “teach” – tāhte 2) scīnan “shine” – scān 3) lōcian “look” – lōcode 4) fōn “catch” – fenZ 5) hyran “hear” – hyrde 6) brenZan “bring” – brōhte 7) faran “go” – fōr 8) wyrcan “work” – worhte.

27. Build the principal forms of the following weak verbs.

1) styrian “stir” 2) dēman “deem” 3) andswarian “answer” 4) habban “have” 5) libban “live” 6) cēpan “keep”.

28. Build the first or third person singular present of the following OE verbs and state their type.

1) maZan “may” 2) sculan “have to” 3) cunnan “can” 4) þurfan “need” 5) witan “know” 6) munan “remember”.

29. Why is the OE verb BĒŌN-WESAN called suppletive? How many stems are the forms of this verb derived from?

30. How do you account for the term “anomalous” used with reference to the OE verbs DŌN and WILLAN?

31. Conjugate the OE strong verb HELPAN and the weak verb DĒMAN in full. Their principal forms are as follows:

1) helpan – healp – hulpon – holpen 2) dēman – dēmde – dēmed.