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Changes within the System of Strong and Weak Verbs in ME

Strong verbs

The seven classes of OE strong verbs underwent multiple grammatical and phonetic changes. In ME the final syllables of the stems were weakened, in Early NE most of them were lost.

1) The OE endings •an, -on, and -en (of the 1st, 3rd and 4th principal forms) were all reduced to ME -en; consequently in Classes 6 and 7, where the infinitive and the participle had the same gradation vowel, these forms fell together. In Classes 1 and 3 it led to the coincidence of the3rd and 4th principal forms.

2) There were phonetic changes in root of verbs. The major factor is lengthening of root the vowel: in 4 and 5 class because the syllable is opened, also in 3 class - where after n goes d – (findan-> fiindan). Destruction of interchange [z~r] under Verner's law (remains only was-were). The 4 and 5 class in ME it begins to merge in favour of 4-th class. It is visible at Chaser. 4. Beren-bar-bren-boren.5. Treden-trad-trde-treden/trodden. The letter "o" gets into 2 and 3 form. Treden-trod - troden (ñòóïàòü).

The unaccented inflection of infinitive was lost already in the ME, and Part2 in ME was: Çe-treden, çe-writen, çe-funden.

One of the most important events in the history of the strong verbs was their transition into weak. In ME and Early NE many strong verbs began to form their Past and Participle II with the help of the dental suffix instead of vowel gradation. Therefore the number of strong verbs decreased. In OE there were about three hundred strong verbs. Some of them dropped out of use owing to changes in the vocabulary, while most of the remaining verbs became weak. The changes in the formation of principal parts of strong verbs extended over a long period — from the 12th to'18th c.

Weak verbs

Class I are described used as sources of modern non-standard verbs. ME verbs of Class I took the ending -de in the past without an intermediate vowel before the dental suffix — and the ending -ed in the Past Participle.

Several groups of modern non-standard verbs have developed from the weak verbs of Class I.

1) Verbs like OE sellan and txcan had an interchange in the root caused by palatal mutation in the Present tense stem and its absence in the other stems (Past tense salde/sealde, tahte.) In ME and NE they preserved the root-vowel interchange, though some of the vowels were altered due to regular quantitative and qualitative vowel changes: ME sellen — solde ME I'so:ld9]> NE sold [sould]), techen taughte; NE sell — sold, teach taught.

2) Another group of weak verbs became irregular in Early ME as a result of quantitative vowel changes. In verbs like OE cepan fedan me tan the long vowel in the root was shortened before two consonants in the Past and ParticipleII; OE cepte> ME kepte ['kepta]. The long vowel in the Present tense stem was preserved and was altered during the Great Vowel Shift, hence the interchange[ i : ~ e ] , NE keep — kept, feed fed.

3) Verbs like OE settan, with the root ending in a dental consonant, added the dental suffix without the intervening vowel [e ] — OE sette.



When the inflections were reduced and dropped, the three stems of the verbs — Present, Past and Participle II fell together: NE set set set;

Class 2 formed a basis of the future irregular verbs. There are some verbs joined:

1.Some verbs of 1 class weak deem-deemed.

2.3 class live-lived. The verbs of Class II, which were marked by -ode, -od in OE, had weakened these endings to -ede, -ed in ME. In Late ME the vowel [e] in unstressed medial and final syllables became very unstable and was lost. This change eliminated the differences between the two classes and also the. distinctions between the 2nd and 3rd principal forms.

3. All borrowings (unique loan word take from ñêàíä remains in 6 class,).

Class 3 was destroyed. We have 2 classes by the end of this process:

1. Regular (on the basis of weak)

2. Irregular: 1) all remained strong 2) weak 1êë irregular 3) weak 1êë with devocalization in the end 4) 2 remained verbs of 3 class - have, say.

Anomalous verbs

Several preterite-present verbs died out. The surviving verbs lost some of their old forms and grammatical distinctions but retained many specific peculiarities. They lost the forms of the verbals which had sprung up in OE and the distinctions between the forms of number and mood in the Present tense. In NE their paradigms have been reduced to two forms or even to one.

Among the verbs of the minor groups there were several anomalous verbs with irregular forms. OE willan was an irregular verb with the meaning of volition and desire; it resembled the preterite-presents in meaning and function, as it indicated an attitude to an action and was often followed by an Infinitive. Willan had a Past tense form wolde, built like sceolde, the Past tense of the preterite-present sculan, sceal. Eventually willan became a modal verb, like the surviving preterite-presents, and, together with sculan developed into an auxiliary (NE shall, will, should, would).

Some verbs combined the features of weak and strong verbs. OE don formed a weak Past tense with a vowel interchange: and a Parti­ciple in -n: don — dyde — çe-don (NE do). OE buan 'live' had a weak Past — bude and Participle II, ending in -n, ie-bun like a strong verb.

In OE its Past form was built from a different root and had a weak ending: code; its Part. II ended in -n, similarly with strong verbs (ie)^dn. In ME the verb acquired a new Past tense wente, which came from an entirely different verb, OE wendan (ME wenden, NE wend). Its OE Past form wente had entered the paradigm of goon (NE go, went), while wend acquired a new past form wended. Thus the verb go remained a suppletive verb, though its OE Past was replaced by anew form (this is arare instance of suppletion appearing at arelatively recent period of history).


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1796


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