Seminar 2 HEL

Theoretical questions:
a) What were the main grammar categories of OE nouns?
 The OE noun had two numbers, singular and plural; three genders: masculine (M), feminine (F) and
neuter (N); and four cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative.
 The OE noun had 2 grammatical categories: number and case. Also, nouns distinguished 3 genders, but
gender was not a grammatical category; it was merely a classifying feature accounting for the division of
nouns into morphological classes.
 The category of number consisted of two members: singular and plural. There were 4 major cases:
nominative, genitive, dative, accusative.
 The OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of
nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables.
 Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels (vocalic stems, e.g. a-stems, i- stems), of consonants (consonantal
stems, e.g. n-stems), of sound sequences, e.g. -ja-stems, -nd-stems. Some groups of nouns had no stem-
forming suffix or had a “zero-suffix”; they are usually termed “root-stems” and are grouped together
with consonantal stems, as their roots ended in consonants, e.g. OE man, bōc.
 OE nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak
nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional
system. Strong (a,o,i,u –stem). A-stem and its variation ja&wa – m,n. O-stem – jo&wo –f noun. I-stem –
m,f,n. U-stem – m,f. j,w –appeare before inflexion. Weak decl – n –m,f,n. es –n. room-stem (Root-stem
formed some cases not by an in flexional ending, but by the chance of the root vowel due to mutation)-
no form suffixes. Mutation was used to define number and gender of noun. Primary compound (both
parts in Nomcase) +adj+noun. Secondary comp.noun (the 2-nd part in Gen Case.)=noun+noun,
verb+noun.
 15,The changes of the noun grammatical categories in me and their causes.
 Most changes occurred to the Noun in ME.
 System of Declensions: In ME the declensions disappeared due to the reduction of endings. As far as the
Case endings were reduced to one or two, there remained no distinction between the Case forms of
different declensions and there was no necessity any more to distinguish these declensions.
 Gender:  The Gender in OE was not supported semantically. It was only a classifying feature for the
declensions and as far as the declensions disappeared there was no necessity to preserve the Gender. It
disappeared by the 11th – 12th c.
 Number: The quantity of the Number endings was also reduced as far as the declensions disappeared.
The markers of the Plural became more uniform (-s, -en, root-sound interchange). The preference of
the consonantal endings can be explained by the fact that the vowels were more apt to change and
reduction then the consonants that in general proved to be more stable.
 Case:  The Case system was contracted in ME due to the reduction of endings. As far as the Case
endings were reduced to one or two, there remained no distinction between the Case forms and there
was no necessity any more to distinguish 4 Cases: OE Nom., Dat., Acc. > Common; Gen. > Gen.
(Possessive): The usage of the Genitive became more limited. In Singular it was marked by -‘s. In the
17th – 18th c. the apostrophe (‘) started to be used in Pl, Gen as far as the plural Genitive ending was lost
but some distinction between the Common and the Genitive case in Plural should be preserved.
 Causes for Decay of Case System: Influence of the Scandinavian Dialects that were grammatically
simpler in comparison with OE Dialects and this influence led to the minimization of
grammar; Phonetic reduction of final unstressed syllables (inflections).
 Consequences of Case System Decay: The number of prepositions started to grow to help to replace the
former Case forms; As far as there was no distinctions between the Cases, the distinction between the
Subject and the Object of a sentence was lost  fixed word order appeared (The Subject almost always
took the first place and was followed by the Object).
  The use of noun cases in OE.
 +There were 4 major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative. The Nom. case was the case of the
subject used with verbs denoting activity, it indicated the subject of the sentence. It was also used for
direct address. The Acc. indicated the direct object of the sentence. It was never distinguished in the
plural, or in a neuter noun. The Gen. case indicated possession. It also indicated partitive nouns. The
meanings of the Gen. case were very complex and can only be grouped under the headings “Subjective”
and “Objective” Gen. Subjective Gen. is associated with the possessive meaning and the meaning of
origin. Objective Gen. is associated with what is termed “partitive meaning” .The Dat. case indicated the
indirect object of the sentence, it was the chief case used with prepositions, Dat. Case could convey an
instrumental meaning, indicating the means or manner of an action.

b) Speak on OE nouns’ declension.

Declension of n-stem nouns

Gender Masculine Feminine Neuter
Case
Singular nama (name) tunge (tongue) eaзe (eye)
Nominative naman tungan eaзan
Genitive naman tungan eaзan
Dative naman tungan eaзе
Accusative
Plural naman tungan eaзan
Nominative namena tungena eaзеna
Genitive namum tungum eaзum
Dative naman tungan eaзan
Accusative

The n-stem was the most important among all the consonant stem declensions. This class of nouns
was composed of common words. The group was very extensive in Old English and like the a-stem
declension it exhibited a tendency to spread its forms over other declensions.

The original stem-suffix –n may be observed in the majority of case forms, but very often the
grammatical ending had been dropped in the pre-written period; this phenomenon gave rise to a well-
marked homonymity of the noun forms of the declension. Five case forms of the masculine and the
feminine genders – all the Singular with the exception of the Nominative and the Nominative and the
Accusative plural are homonymous, in case of neuter nouns only four forms are homonymous, as the
Accusative case of neuter nouns is homonymous to the Nominative.

Gender oppositions in this declension are also not distinct, the masculine nouns being different from
the feminine only in the Nominative and the Accusative Singular.

Declension of root-stem nouns

Root-stems require special consideration. This class was not extensive and stood apart among other
Old English nouns due to peculiarities of form-building which was partly retained in Modern English.

Unlike other classes the root-stem nouns such as man (man, masculine), mūs (mouse,

feminine) originally had no stem-suffix and the grammatical ending was added directly to the root. As
the result of that in the Dative Singular and the Nominative and the Accusative Plural the root-vowel
had undergone palatal mutation due to the [i] – sound in the grammatical ending of theses forms.
Later the ending was dropped and vowel interchange remained the only means of differentiating the
given forms in the paradigm. The feminine nouns with the short root had the ending -u in the
Nominative and the Accusative Singular, and -e in the Nominative and the Accusative Plural. The
endings of the rest of forms are built up on analogy with those of the a-stems, hence the difference
between genders can be observed only in the Genitive Singular – -es for the masculine, -e for the
feminine.

Declension of root-stem nouns

Gender Masculine Feminine
Case
Singular man (man) mūs
Nominative mannes mūse
Genitive man mýs
Dative man mūs
Accusative
Plural men mýs
Nominative manna mūsa
Genitive mannum mūsum
Dative men mýs
Accusative

In the prehistoric period of the development of the English language each case had an ending typical
of its uninflected form. In the course of the development of the English language, however, due to
various semantic and phonetic changes different cases began to develop similar endings; this
phenomenon gave rise to the well-marked homonymity of case-forms in English.

The most distinct homonymous endings are as follows:

1. All the nouns in the genitive plural have the ending -a.

2. All the nouns in the dative plural have the ending –um.

+3. The dative singular ends in a vowel or has no ending at all.

The existence of different endings of nouns grammatically alike and the homonymous endings of
nouns grammatically different will later result in the uniformity of the morphological paradigm.

c) What were the features of OE adjectives?

The Adjective. The Old English adjective possessed the category of gender, number, case, and
the strong and weak declensions. The adjective ending represented the gender, number, case
and declension simultaneously. The comparative degree was formed by adding the suffix -ra and
the superlative by adding-ost or –est.

lang lengra lengest
eald ieldra ieldest

d) How were the degrees of comparison of adjectives formed?

Like adjectives in other languages, most OE adjectives distinguished between three degrees of
comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The comparative degree was formed from the
positive with the help of the suffix –ra; the superlative degree was characterized with the suffix -
est/ost. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an interchange of the root-vowel often caused
by mutation (see Table 3.11).

Comparison of Adjectives in Old English

Means of Positive Comparative Superlative NE
form-building
Suffixation soft softra softost soft
wēri wērira wēriost weary
Suffixation læd lædra ladost glad
plus vowel lon lenra lenest long
interchange eald ieldra ieldest old
(also: ealdra ealdost, ealdest)

Suppletion ōd bettra bet(e)st good

lýtel læssa læst little
micel māra mæst much

Some adjectives had suppletive forms. Suppletion was a very old way of building the degrees of
comparison (it can be illustrated by the forms of adjectives in other IE languages: G gut, besser,
best; Fr mal, pire; R xopoший, лучше). Like nouns, OE adjectives had 3 genders and 2 numbers.
The category of case in adjectives differed from that of nouns: in addition to the 4 cases of nouns they
had one more case, Instrumental. It was used when the adjective served as an attribute to a noun in
the Dative case, expressing an instrumental meaning – e.g.:

lýtlewerede – "with (the help) of small troop".

OE adjective had the following typological features:

1) the grammatical agreement with the noun it modified;

2) declension according to the weak and strong forms which depended on the definiteness or
indefiniteness of the nouns;

3) distinguishing between the degrees of comparison.

a) Adjectives of Weak and Strong Declension.

The relations between the declensions of nouns, adjectives and pronouns are shown in the following
chart:

PRONOUNS NOUNS
 ↓ a-stems ō-stems n-stems (weak)

↓↓↓

ADJECTIVES OF STRONG DECLENSION ADJECTIVES OF WEAK

DECLENSION

The difference between the strong and weak declension was formal (depending on the stem-forming
suffixes) and semantic: the strong forms were associated with the meaning of indefiniteness (roughly
corresponding to the meaning of the modern indefinite article), the weak forms – with the meaning of
definiteness (corresponding to the meaning of the definite article). The formal and semantic
opposition between the two declensions of adjectives is regarded by some historians as a
grammatical category of "definiteness/ indefiniteness" (A.I. Smirnitsky).

Most adjectives could be declined in both ways. The adjective had a strong form when used
predicatively and when used attributively without any other determiners, e.g.:

Þā menn sindon 3ōde “the men are good”,

mid hnescre beddin3e “with soft bedding”.

The weak form was employed when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the
Gen. case of personal pronouns, e. g.:

Þæt wēste land "that uninhabited land",

Þý betstan lēoþe "with the best song";

And also when the adjective formed a part of a direct address:

Þū lēofa drihten "thou dear Lord".

Table 3

Declensions of adjectives

Singular

Strong ( pure a- and ō-stems) Weak

MNF MNF
Nom. blind blind blind blinda blinde blinde
Gen. blindes blindes blindre blindan blindan blindan
Dat. blindum blindum blindre blindan blindan blindan
Acc. blindne blind blinde blindan blinde blindan
Instr. blinde blinde blindre blindan blindan blindan

Plural

Nom. blinde blind blinda, -e All genders

Gen. blindra blindra blindra blindan
Dat. blindum blindum blindum blindra, -ena
Acc. blinde blind blinda, -e blindum
Instr. blindum blindum blindum blindan
(NE blind) blindum

b) Degrees of Comparison.

Most OE adjectives distinguished between 3 degrees of comparison: positive,

comparative and superlative. The regular means used to form the comparative and the superlative
from the positive were the suffixes –ra and –est/ ost. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an
interchange of the root-vowel. Some adjectives (3ōd, lýtel, micel) had suppletive forms.

Table 4

Means of form- Positive Comparative Superlative NE

building
Suffixation soft softra softost soft
Suffixation + lon3 len3ra len3est long
vowel
interchange
Suppletion 3ōd bettra bet(e)st good
lýtel lǽssa lǽst little
micel māra mǽst much

e) What were the main features of OE verbs?

OE verbs have two tenses (present and past) and three moods (indicative, subjunctive and
imperative). There are also the verbals – the infinitive, the first (present) and the second (past)
participles. The verbs agree with the subject in person and number.

Germanic is distinguished among the branches of the Indo-European family by several unique
features which were developed by internal progress of the Common Germanic language. One of such
features was the formation of the weak verbs, which did not exist in the Proto-Indo-European
language.

Modern English makes a distinction between regular and irregular verbs. This distinction goes back to
the Old English system of strong and weak verbs. Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation
(known as Ablaut). In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense.
Verbs like this persist in modern English, for example "sing, sang, sung" is a strong verb, as are
swim/swam/swum and choose/chose/chosen. The root portion of the word changes rather than its
ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern
of stem changes.
OE strong verbs are traditionally divided into seven classes, each having a distinct pattern of the root
vowels in its principal parts, different from any other class. There were four basic forms of strong
verbs in OE: the Infinitive, the Past singular, the Past plural, Participle II.

INFINITIVE PAST PAST PLURAL SECOND

SINGULAR PARTICIPLE
Class I
ī ā i i
wrītan (write) wrāt writon writen
Class II
ēo ēa u o
bēodan (offer) bēad budon boden
Class III
(a) before nasal + consonant
i a (o) u u
drincan (drink) dranc druncon druncen
(b) before l + consonant
helpan (help) healp hulpon holpen
(c) before r + consonant, h + consonant
eo ea u o
steorfan (die) stearf sturfon storfen
Class IV
e æ ǣ o
stelan (steal) stæl stǣlon stolen
Class V
e æ ǣ e
tredan (tread) træd trǣdon treden
Class VI
a ō ō a
faran (go) fōr fōron faren
Class VII
feallan (fall) feioll feollon feallen

The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:
 1. ī + one consonant.
2. ēo or ū + one consonant.
3. Originally e + two consonants (This was no longer the case by the time of written Old English).
4. e + one consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb brecan 'to break').
5. e + one consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).
6. a + one consonant.
7. No specific rule – first and second have identical stems (ē or ēo), and the infinitive and the past
participle also have the same stem.

Weak verbs are formed principally by adding dental endings (containing –d- or –t-) to past and
participles. Ever weak verb is characterized by three forms: infinitive, past tense and second
participle. There are three major classes of weak verbs.

The first class displays i-mutation in the root. It also includes several subdivisions.

Class I Weak Verbs

Infinitive Past Second Participle

cēpan (keep) cēpte cēpt, cēped
tellan (tell) tealde teald

Class II verbs did not undergo any mutation, as the replacement of the original suffix *-ōja- was
reduced to –i- at the time when the process of mutation was over. The infinitive of these verbs ends in
–ian.

Class II Weak Verbs

Infinitive Past Second Participle

macian (make) macode macod
hopian (hope) hopode hopod

During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only few verbs belonged to
this group. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though share some commonalities.

Class III Weak Verbs

Infinitive Past Second Participle

habban (have) hæfde hæfd
libban (live) lifde lifd

Conjugation

Class I strong verb wrītan (write)

Present Past
 Indicative Subjunctiv Imperative Indicativ Subjunctive
e e
Sing. 1pers. wrīte wrīte — wrāt write

2 wrītest, wrīt wrīte

pers. wrītst
3 wrīteÞ, wrīt — wrāt
pers.
Plur. wrītaÞ wrīten 2d pers. – wrīton writen
wrītaÞ
Infinitive First Participle Second Participle
wrītan wrītende (ge)writen
Dat. tō wrītenne

Every infinitive can have a dative case used with the preposition tō.

Class I weak verb styrian (stir)

Present Past
Indicative Subjunctiv Imperative Indicativ Subjunctive
e e
Sing. 1pers. styrie styrie — styrede styrede

2 styrest, styre styredest

pers.
3 styrieÞ — styrede
pers.
Plur. styriaÞ styrien 2d pers. – styredon styreden
styriaÞ
Infinitive First Participle Second Participle
styrian styriende (ge) styred

f) Speak on Preterit-Present OE verbs

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which form the present like the past of a strong verb,
and the past like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from perfect tense verbs that have
accuired a present meaning. For example, witan, "to know" comes from verb which originally meant
"to have seen." As a result of this history, the present singular is formed from the first preterite stem,
and the present plural from the second preterite stem.

Infinitive cunnan (can) sculan (shall, should)

Present tense
Indicative
Sing. 1st pers. cann sceal

2d pers. canst scealt

3rd pers. cann sceal(l)
Plural cunnon sculon
Subjunctive
Sing. cunne scule, scyle
Plural cunnen sculen, scyle
Past Tense
Indicative
Sing. 1st pers. cūðe sceolde

2d pers. cūðest sceoldest

3rd pers. cūðe sceolde
Plural cūðon sceoldon
Subjunctive
Sing. cūðe sceolde
Plural cūðen sceolden
Participle II cunnen, cūð —

g) Speak on OE pronouns

Personal pronouns

First person
Case Singular Dual Plural
Nom. ic wit wē
Gen. mīn uncer ūre, ūser
Dat. mē unc ūs
Acc. mec, mē uncit ūsic, ūs
Second person
Case Singular Dual Plural
Nom. Þū git gē
Gen. Þīn incer ēower
Dat. Þē inc ēow
Acc. Þēc, Þē incit, inc ēowic, ēow
Third person
Masc. Fem. Neuter Plural
Nom. hē hēo, hīo hit hīe, hī, hú, hēo
Gen. his hire, hiere his hira, heora, hiera, hyra
Dat. him hire, hiere him him, heom
Acc. hine hīe, hī, hú hit hīe, hī, hú, hēo

The possessive pronouns are derived from the genitive case of the personal pronouns. The 1stand 2d
person possessive pronouns are declined like adjectives to show the agreement with the noun, the 3d
person possessive pronouns (his, hire, hiera) are unchanged.

Demonstrative pronouns

There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE, that could also act as determiners (similar to the
modern definite article): se, which could function as both 'the' or 'that', andþesfor 'this'.

Declension of the demonstrative pronoun Þēs

Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative Þes Þēos, Þis Þās
Þīos
Genitive Þisses Þisse Þisses Þissa
Dative Þissum, Þisse Þissum, Þissum, Þeossum
Þeossum Þeossum
Accusative Þisne, Þās Þis Þās
Þysne
Instrumental Þys, Þis — Þys, Þis —
Declension of the demonstrative pronoun sē

Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative sē sēo Þæt Þā
Genitive Þæs Þǣre Þæs Þāra, Þǣra
Dative Þǣm Þǣre Þǣm Þǣm, Þām
Accusative Þone Þā Þæt Þā
Instrumental Þ, Þon — Þ, Þon —
Interrogative pronouns
The interrogative pronouns hwā? (who?) andhwæt? (what?) have only singular forms.

Nominative hwā hwæt

Accusative hwæs hwæs
Genitive hwǣm hwǣm
Dative hwone hwæt
Instrumental — hw, hwī

The interrogative pronoun hwilc? (which) is declined as a strong adjective.

Definite pronouns

gehwā (every) – declined as hwā;

gehwilc (each), ǣgÞer (either),ǣlc (each), swilc (such) – declined as strong adjectives;

sē ilca – declined as a weak adjective.

Indefinite pronouns
sum (some), ǣnig (any) – declined as strong adjectives.

Negative

nān, nǣning (no) – declined as strong adjectives.

h) OE adverbs and numerals

The Old English language preserves the system of declension only for numerals from 1 to 3. Here is
the list of the cardinal numerals:
 1 ān 20 twentig
2 twā 21 twentig ond ān 
3 þrīe 30 þrītig
4 fēower 40 fēowertig
5 fīf 50 fīftig
6 six, syx, siex 60 siextig
7 seofon, syofn 70 siofontig
8 eahta 80 eahtatig
9 nigon 90 nigontig
10 tien, týn 100 hundtēontig, hund, hundred
11 endlefan 110 hundælleftig
12 twelf 120 hundtwelftig
13 þrīotīene 200 tū hund
14 fēowertīene 1000 þūsend
15 fīftīene 2000 tū þūsendu

1 ān is declined just like a strong adjective, can be only singular, but has masculine, neuter and
feminine genders. It is the source of the future indefinite article 'a, an' in Modern English. So 'a house'
in fact means "one house", here -n disappeared before a consonant.

2 twā:

Masculine Neuter Feminine

Nominative twegen     tū, twā twā
Genitive twēgea, twēgra
Dative twǣm, twām
Accusative twegen tū, twā twā

No number can be changed for this numeral, and originally this numeral was dual, which seems
natural.

3 þrīe:

Masculine Neuter Feminine

Nominative þrīe, þrī, þrý     þrīo, þrēo þrīo, þrēo
Genitive þrīora, þrēora
Dative þrīm
Accusative þrīe, þrī, þrý þrīo, þrēo þrīo, þrēo

The numeral begen, bū, bā(both) is declined the same way astwāand is also dual.

Ordinal numerals  use the suffix -taor-þa, etymologically a common Indo-European one (*-to-).

1 forma, fyresta 14 fēowertēoþa

2 ōþer, æfterra 15 fīftēoþa
3 þridda, þirda 16 sixtēoþa
4 fēorþa 17 siofontēoþa
5 fīfta 18 eahtatēoþa
6 siexta, syxta 19 nigontēoþa
7 siofoþa 20 twentigoþa
8 eahtoþa 30 þrittigoþa
9 nigoþa 40 fēowertigoþa
10 tēoþa 50 fīftigoþa
11 endlefta
12 twelfta 100 hundtēontiogoþa
13 þreotēoþa

+The two variants for the word "first" actually mean different attributes: formais translated as
"forward", andfyrestais "the farthest", "the first". Again double variants for the second nominal mean
respectively "the other" and "the following".

Mainly according to Old English texts ordinal numerals were used with the demonstrative
pronoun þābefore them. This is where the definite article in'the first', 'the third' comes from.

i) OE syntax

The syntactic structure of OE was determined by two major conditions: the nature of OE morphology
and the relations between the spoken and the written forms of the language. OE was largely a
synthetic language; it possessed a system of grammatical forms which could indicate the connection
between words. It was primarily a spoken language, consequently, the syntax of the sentence was
relatively simple.

The Phrase. Noun, Adjective and Verb Patterns

The syntactic structure of a language can be described at the level of the phrase and at the level of
the sentence. In OE texts we find a variety of word phrases. OE noun patterns, adjective and verb
patterns had certain specific features which are important to note in view of their later changes.

A noun pattern consisted of a noun as the head word and pronouns, adjectives, numerals and other
nouns as determiners and attributes. Most noun modifiers agreed with the noun in gender, number
and case, e.g. on þǽm ōþrum þrīm daзum ‘in those other three days’ – Dat. pl Masc.

An adjective pattern could include adverbs, nouns or pronouns in one of the oblique cases with or
without prepositions, and infinitives, e.g. him wæs manna þearf ‘he was in need of man’.
Verb patterns included a great variety of dependant components: nouns and pronouns in oblique
cases with or without prepositions, adverbs, infinitives and participles, e.g. brinз þā þīnз ‘bring those
things’.

+Word order

The order of words in the OE sentence was relatively free. The position of words in the sentence was
often determined by logical and stylistic factors rather than by grammatical constraints. Nevertheless
the freedom of word order and its seeming independence of grammar should not be overestimated.
The order of words could depend on the communicative type of the sentence – question versus
statement, on the type of clause, on the presence and place of some secondary parts of the
sentence. A peculiar type of word order is found in many subordinate and in some coordinate
clauses: the clause begins with the subject following the connective, and ends with the predicate or
its finite part, all the secondary parts being enclosed between them. It also should be noted that
objects were often placed before the predicate or between two parts of the predicate.

Those were the main tendencies in OE word order.

-The syntactic structure of a language is usually closely connected with its morphology. In a highly
inflected language a word mostly carries with it indications of its class, of its function in the sentence,
of its relations to other words. It depends but little on its position in the sentence, and it may do
without special function words. With the loss of inflections the dependence of the word grows. Much
of the difference between the Old English and the Modern English syntax is of that nature.

The order of words in a sentence was comparatively free in OE as contrasted with the rigid word
order of Modern English.

The comparative freedom of word order was felt not only in the predicative word combination but in
other combinations of words, too. It is by no means rare to find modifiers following their nouns instead
of preceding them. Prepositions, which usually preceded the nouns or pronouns they governed, often
followed them, sometimes at a considerable distance.

In OE the inflections played a much greater role in the indication of syntactical relation between words
in a sentence or group than in Modern English.

Grammatical agreement and government were of much greater importance in OE than in Modern
English.

The subject of a sentence or clause was frequently unexpressed in OE.

In OE usage of multiple negation was perfectly normal.

The OE interrogative pronouns hwœt ‘what’, hwilc ‘which’, hwa ‘who’ etc. were not used as relative

pronouns. Relative clauses were usually introduced by the invariable þe, alone or with a
demonstrative pronoun.

OE complex sentences often involved correlation. There were many sets of correlative elements in
OE; among the commonest were þa (…þa) … þa, þonne… þonne, swa … swa.
 The subjunctive mood was an additional means of indicating subordination in OE complex sentences.
It is mostly found in clauses of condition, concession, cause, result, purpose, in indirect questions,
though it was by no means rare in independent sentences or principal clauses.

+In OE texts we often come across certain verbal phrases which have proved of great importance in
the development of the grammatical structure of English. The analytical forms of the verb, so typical
of Modern English, derive from those Old English verbal phrases, so that the latter might be called
analytical form in embryo.

Iċ Ælfriċ wolde þās lytlan bōc āwenden tō enᵹliscum ᵹereorde of þām stæfcræfte, þe is ᵹehāten
Grammatica, syððan iċ ðā twā bēċ āwende on hundeahtatiᵹum spellum forðan stæfcræft is sēo
cǣᵹ, ðe ðǣra bōca andᵹit unlīċð.
I, Aelfric, wanted to render this little book into English language
on the art that is called grammar, since I have translated two books of eighty stories
therefore this art
is the key which reveals the idea of these books.

2.

gerædan Verb strong class 7

to advise ; to give counsel
Verb Present Tense Preterite Tense
Indicative
Sg. 1 ic i ġerǣde ic i ġerēd|ġereord|ġerǣdde
2 þu you ġerǣtst|ġerǣdest þu you ġerēde|ġereorde|ġerǣddest
3 he/hit/heo he/it/she ġerǣtt|ġerǣt|ġerǣdeþ he/hit/heo he/it/she ġerēd|ġereord|ġe
Pl. we/ge/hie we/ye/they ġerǣdaþ we/ge/hie we/ye/they ġerēdon|ġereo
Subjunctive
Sg. ġerǣde ġerēde|ġereorde|ġerǣdde
Pl. ġerǣden ġerēden|ġereorden|ġerǣdden
Participles present participle (...ing) / past participle (...ed)
  ġerǣdende ġerǣden|ġerǣded
Imperative (direct command)
Sg. ġerǣd
Pl. ġerǣdaþ
Inflected Infinitive
to ġerǣdenne
gereord Strong adjective
Having a language v. un-gereord. ge-reordan. Add: I. absolute
gereord Masculine Feminine Neuter  
Strong Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative gereord gereorde gereordu gereorda gereord gereordu
Accusative gereordne gereorde gereorde gereorda gereord gereordu
Genitive gereordes gereordra gereordre gereordra gereordes gereordra
Dative gereordum gereordum gereordre gereordum gereordum gereordum

cæg Noun  strong ō-stem

key
cæg Singular Plural
Nominative (the/that se) cǣġ (the/those þá) cǣġa|cǣġe
Accusative (the/that þone) cǣġe (the/those þá) cǣġa|cǣġe
Genitive (the/that þæs) cǣġe (the/those þára) cǣġa
Dative (the/that þæm) cǣġe (the/those þæm) cǣġum

3) little story - Hwônlic flêring

English grammar-Engliscum stæfcræft

I translated a book. - Ic āwenden bóc.

Text 2.
Æfter þǣm þe hīe oferwunnen hæfde, hē fōr on Bretanie þǣt iȝlond, and wið þa Brettas ȝefeaht þā
Brettas ȝefeaht and ȝeflīēmed wearþ on þam londe þe mon hēt Centlond. Raþe þǣs hē ȝefeaht wið þa
Brettas on Centlonde, and hī wurdon ȝefliemede.
a) strong verbs, give their forms:
oferwunnen
hatan Verb strong class 7
1. to order ; command 2. to call ; name 3. to be called or named
Verb Present Tense Preterite Tense
Indicative
oferwinnan Verb strong class 3
to overcome
Sg. 1 ; conquer ; vanquish
ic i hāte; subdue ic i hēt|hēht
2Verb Present Tense
þu you hǣtst Preterite Tense
þu you hēte|hēhte
3Indicative he/hit/heo he/it/she hǣtt|hǣt he/hit/heo he/it/she hēt|hēht
Sg. 1
Pl. ic i oferwinnewe/ge/hie we/ye/they hātaþ
ic i oferwann we/ge/hie we/ye/they hēton|hēhton
2
Subjunctive þu you oferwinst þu you oferwunne
3
Sg. he/hit/heo he/it/she oferwinþ
hāte he/hit/heo he/it/she oferwann
hēte|hēhte
Pl. we/ge/hie hāten hēten|hēhten
Pl. we/ge/hie we/ye/they oferwunnon
we/ye/they oferwinnaþ
Participles present participle (...ing) / past participle (...ed)
Subjunctive
  hātende hāten
Sg. oferwinne oferwunne
Imperative (direct command)
Pl. oferwinnen oferwunnen
Sg. hāt
Participles present participle (...ing) / past participle (...ed)
Pl. hātaþ
  oferwinnende oferwunnen
Inflected Infinitive
Imperative (direct command)
to hātenne
Sg. oferwinn
Pl. oferwinnaþ
Inflected Infinitive
to oferwinnenne

gefeaht Strong Neuter Noun

A battle prælium
gefeaht Singular Plural
Nominative (the/that þæt) gefeaht (the/those þá) gefeaht
Accusative (the/that þæt) gefeaht (the/those þá) gefeaht
Genitive (the/that þæs) gefeahtes (the/those þára) gefeahta
Dative (the/that þæm) gefeahte (the/those þæm) gefeahtum
weorðan Verb Strong sv/i3
geworden absolute (1) to come to be to be made to arise come be (2) to come to
pass to be done to happen to take place befall come be
Verb Present Tense Preterite Tense
Indicative
Sg. 1 ic i wíere ic i wearþ
2 þu you wíerest þu you wurde
he/hit/heo
3 he/hit/heo he/it/she wearþ
he/it/she wíereþ
we/ge/hie
Pl. we/ge/hie we/ye/they wurdon
we/ye/they wíeraþ
Subjunctive
Sg. wíere wurde
Pl. wíeren wurden
Participles present participle (...ing) / past participle (...ed)
  wíerende geworden
Imperative (direct command)
Sg. wíere
Pl. wíeraþ
Inflected Infinitive
to wíeran

Old Modern
English English

æfter after

ær before
 æt from/by way of

be by/about

beæftan behind/after

beforan before/in front of

betweox between/among

butan without

eac besides/including

for for/because of

fram from/by

mid with

of of/from

ongean against/towards

to to

wiþ against