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Strong, Weak, Preterite-Present and Anomalous Verbs in OE.

The majority of OE verbs fell into two great divisions: the strong verbs and the weak verbs. Besides these two main groups there were a few verbs which could be put together as “minor” groups. The main difference between the strong and weak verbs lay in the means of forming the principal parts, or “stems” of the verb. The strong verbs formed their stems by means of ablaut and by adding certain suffixes; in some verbs ablaut was accompanied by consonant interchanges. The strong verbs had four stems, as they distinguished two stems in the Past Tense – one for the 1st and 3rd p. sg Ind. Mood, the other – for the other Past tense forms, Ind. and Subj. the weak verbs derived their Past tense stem and the stem of Participle II from the Present tense stem with the help of the dental suffix -d- or -t-; normally they did not interchange their root vowel, but in some verbs suffixation was accompanied by a vowel interchange. Minor groups of verbs differed from the weak and strong verbs. Some of them combined certain features of the strong and weak verbs in a peculiar way (“preterite-present” verbs); others were suppletive or altogether anomalous.

Strong Verbs The strong verbs in OE are usually divided into seven classes. Classes from 1 to 6 use vowel gradation which goes back to the IE ablaut-series modified in different phonetic conditions in accordance with PG and Early OE sound changes. Class 7 includes reduplicating verbs, which originally built their past forms by means of repeating the root-morpheme; this doubled root gave rise to a specific kind of root-vowel interchange. The principal forms of all the strong verbs have the same endings irrespective of class: -an for the Infinitive, no ending in the Past sg stem, -on in the form of Past pl, -en for Participle II.

Strong vrb indicate tense by a change in the quality of a vowel. They are original(germ. Europ). Restrictive group of verb. Oe – over 300Sv. 1 class –i class, a. 2 class-u-classu+root=diphthong,. Root consonant changed(rotasism). 3,4 class- the gradation was caused by consonant.(breaking), 6- qualitative-quantities ablaut 7 class –reduplication of the root-morpheme. They use form of conjugation known as ablaut. And this form of conjugation the stem of the word change to indicate the tense.

OE Weak verbs

W.v. form their Preterit and Participle2 by addition of a dental suffix (d/t) –love, loved. Weak verbs form the majority of Old English verbs. There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-mutation in the root. The verbs of Class I usually were i-stems, originally contained the element [-i/-j] between the root and the endings. The verbs of Class II were built with the help of the stem-suffix -ō, or -ōj and are known as ō-stems. Class III was made up of a few survivals of the PG third and fourth classes of weak verbs, mostly -ǽj-stems.

Each Wv. is characterized by 3 basic forms: infinitive, Preterit and a participle 2.



1st class regular verbs are formed either from noun, or from other verbs. In regular verbs the root vowel in all forms subjected to mutation under the influence -i in suffix. 1. The verbs with long root vowels -i disappears irrespective of which consonant stood before it. dēman-dēmde-dēmed

The 1st class formally with ja in the present and i in the past. Its root vowel is mutated (anomalous).3 forms, becausePl&sg distinguished only the inflection. There are 11 irregular verbs in 1 class. Their irregularity consist that they have suffix only in 1 form - the infinitive and present tense, and it means, that umlaut was only in 1-st form, that is the 1st form distinguished from the second and the third by quality of the root vowel. (sellan, sealed, seald-to give). Irreg verbs which have a mutated vowel in the Present tense and no mutation in the Preterit and P2

2rd class –o-class. This o –is preserved by preterit and Participle2. 2nd class has - oja -in the infinitive and –o- in preterit. The vowel is not mutated.

3rd class contained few verbs: habban-hæfde-hæfd (have), Libban-lifde-lifd (live), Secçan-sæçde/sæde-sæçd/ (say). The dental suffix is joined immediate to the root. In the present there was –j-, but the 2nd and 3rd pers.Sg show no trace of –j-.

OE anomalous verbs

Among the verbs of the minor groups there were several anomalous verbs with irregular forms. Suppletive v(beon, wesen –root be, es,wes)is verb which create different grammatical categories by means of root vowel(be,es,wes). The most important group of these verbs were the so-called “preterite-presents”.Originally the Present tense forms of these verbs were Past tense forms. Later these forms had a present meaning but preserved many formal features of the Past tense. Most of these verbs had new Past Tense forms built with the help of the dental suffix. Some of them also had the forms of the verbals: Participles and Infinitives. In OE there were twelve preterite-present verbs. Six of them have survived in Mod E: OE āç; cunnan; cann; dear(r), sculan, sceal; maçan, mæç; mōt (NE owe, ought; can; dare; shall; may; must). Most preterite-presents did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb, an Infinitive which followed the preterite-present. In other words they were used like modal verbs, and eventually developed into modern modal verbs. They have in Present vowel gradation and in the Past – dental suffix.

OE willan was an irregular verb with the meaning of volition and desire; it resembled(èìåëî ñõîäñòâî) the preterit-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.


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2463


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OE Vowels. Development of Vowels in Unstressed Syllables in OE. | Formation of New Diphthongs in ME.
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