2.6.8.2. Weak Verbs

Weak verbs are of much later origin than strong verbs. Unlike strong verbs (with vowel gradation), weak verbs (with suffixation) were highly productive. As a rule, they were derivatives of nouns, adjectives and strong verbs (built usually from the second stem past singular) or borrowed, e.g.

OE fōda (noun) – fēdan (verb) NE food – feed

OE ful (adjective) – fyllan (verb) NE full – fill

OE fand (past sg of the strong verb findan) – fandian NE find – find out

Most of them were built with the help of the stem-building suffix – i/j which together with the ending –an of the infinitive gave -jan or -ian. The suffix – i/j caused mutation, e.g.:

OE talu (noun) – tellan < *tælian (verb) NE tale – tell

OE ful (adjective) – fyllan < fullian (verb) Gt fulljan NE full – fill

The form of the dental suffix (the main feature of weak verbs) serves as classification basis. Weak verbs in OE usually fell into three classes. As the past plural was derived from the past singular by replacing the -e ending of the singular by the -on ending of the plural, every weak verb had three forms: infinitive, past tense and past participle. The stem of the past participle was always identical with that of the past tense.

Class I The 1-st class formed its past in -ede (after short stems) or -de (after long stems) and its past participle in -ed. The 1-st class further fell into two subclasses: regular and irregular verbs.

Regular verbs always had mutation of their root vowel due to an original -i- element in the suffix.

1 verbs with a long root vowel dropped the suffix -i-, e.g.: dēman – dēmde –dēmed < dōmian.

2 (a) verbs with a short root vowel followed by -r kept the -i- without lengthening the –r, e.g.

nerian – nerede- nered (save);

(b) verbs with a short root vowel followed by a consonant other than r dropped the -i- and their consonant was lengthened (doubled in spelling), e.g. fremman-fremede-fremed < *framian (commit)

After voiceless consonants the dental suffix -de changed into -te, owing to assimilation. In the past participle both -t and -ed are found, e.g.

cēpan – cēpte – cēpt, cēped.

If the verb stem ended in «a consonant + d or t » past participle could end either in -d, -t or -ded, -ted, e.g.

sendan – sende – send, sended (send); restan – reste – rest, rested

Irregular verbs of the 1-st class had the -i, which produced mutation. As a result, the vowel of the past tense and past participle differed from that of the infinitive, e.g.

sellan – sealde – seald < *sælian sælde > sealde (sell), tǣcan – tāhte – tāht (teach), þencan – þōhte - þōht (think).

The verb brinʒan stands apart from other irregular verbs: it is weak and strong at the same time. It belongs to the 3-rd class of the strong verbs and has the alternation brinʒ / branʒ, but its past tense and past participle are derived by means of the dental suffix. The resulting forms are those of class I weak verbs: brinʒan – brōhte (<*branhte) – brōht (<*branht).

The verb būan (inhabit) also has a peculiar system of forms: its past tense is that of a weak verb, but its past participle takes the n-suffix, like a strong verb: būan – būde – būn.

Class II A very large number of verbs belonged to this class. These verbs originally had the suffix -oja in the infinitive, later reduced to -i-, which could no longer produce mutation as the process of mutation had already been over. In the past tense and past participle there was the suffix -ō reduced to o in an unstressed position. Hence, their infinitive ending was -ian (Gt -ojan), that of the past tense -ode, of past participle -od. The root vowel remained unchanged and was the same in all the stems:

hatian – hatode – hatod

lufian – lufode – lufod

Class III In OE the 3-rd class was already in the process of disintegration. There were very few verbs in this class. Only three of them have survived:

libban – lifde –lifd (live)

habban – hæfde – hæfd (have)

secʒan - sæʒde/sǣde - sæʒd /sǣd (say)

The infinitive of these verbs had doubling of consonants obviously due to the original -i- in the suffix. The suffixes of the past tense and past participle were added directly to the root.

But for minor differences, the endings of the present tense of the weak verbs are identical with those of the strong verbs. The endings of the past tense are different.