21. Oe strong verbs & their further dev-t

Strong Verbs: Number(300), Type/Origin (Indo-European (reveals suppletivity), Formation of Past Tense forms (by changing the root-vowel (ablaut), Formation of Participle2 forms (with the help of the suffix –en (+ sometimes root-vowel interchange), Derivation (Strong verbs were root-words/non-derivatives (i.e. they were not derived from some other words/roots but were the words/roots from which other words were derived), Productivity (unproductive type (no new words employed this type of form-building), Principle Forms (Infinitive Past Sg Past Pl Participle 2), Classes (subdivided into 7 classes).

1)As far as the strong verbs were a non-productive class, some strong verbs turned into weak with time, i.e. started to employ -t/-d suffix in their form-building. Thus in NE only 70 strong verbs out of 300 in OE remained. 2)The strong verbs were subdivided into 7 classes according to the type of vowel gradation/ablaut. The classes that survived best through different periods of the history were classes 1, 3, 6.

Strong VERBS, changes: 1) In ME the inflections -an, -on, -en were all reduced to just one inflection  -en. 2)In NE the ending -n was lost in the Infinitive and preserved in the Participle 2 in order to distinguish these two forms. 3)In NE Past Singular and Past Plural forms were unified, usually with the Singular form preferred as a unified form because Past Plural and Participle 2 often had similar forms and it was hard to distinguish them  the category of Number disappeared in the Verb. In ModE the subdivision into classes was lost though we still can trace some peculiarities of this or that class in the forms of the irregular verbs.

The OE verb had numerous persons and number cases, but fewer gram. categ. than NE verb had. Str. verbs form their Past tense by changing their root vowel, had 4 principle forms: 1)Infinitive, 2)Past sg, 3)Past pl, 4)Participle II

They can be found in Rus → IE origin. Eg: беру – брал,

Often denoted the most important actions and states. In NE they are mainly irregular verbs.

Had 7 classes:

1. 1-6 classes use vowel gradation;

2. 7 class include reduplication verbs, build their Past tense repeating the root vowel.

3. some verbs with the root ending in –s; -p; -f employed an interchange of consonants [s → z → r], [θ → ð → d], [f → v];

4. The classes differed in the number of verbs and in their role and weight in the language.

5. Classes 4 and 5 deffered in the stems of Part. II. Classes 2, 3 and 4 – had identical vowels in the stems of Part. II.;

6. Classes 1 and 2 - contained in the root [I, u]. Classes 3, 4 and 5 – contained the gradation.

7. In ME many str. verbs changed into weak – they began to use dental suffix instead of the root verb change.

8. The root vowel in the Past sg and pl fell together. In the 15^th cent – one stem is used. In NE – 3 forms of str verbs are used