Old English Online

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Grammar

1 The Alphabet and Sound System

As noted in the Series Introduction, spelling in Old English (OE) was never fully standardized, but instead the "continental" sounds of the Latin alphabet determined how words were spelled -- and this varied from one dialect and time to another. Several letters were added to the Latin alphabet for sounds that were not covered by it, but one of them (wynn) is generally replaced by Latin 'w' to avoid confusing it with the look-alike thorn; further, modern editors have typically added long marks (macrons) over vowels to distinguish their pronunciation from short vowels.

Regarding pronunciation, there are no "silent" letters in Old English.

Consonant		Pronunciation		Comment/Environment
b		like b in 'boy'
c		like c in 'cold'		before a consonant, or with guttural vowels;
		like ch in 'chin'		when word-final after i, otherwise depending on etymology.
d		like d in 'did'
f		like f in 'fin'		initially, finally, in ff/fs/ft, and in strictly medial positions except...
		like v in 'have'		between vowels/voiced consonants (e.g., ǣfre, ofer, sealfian).
g		like g in Ger. 'sagen'		with guttural vowels;
		like y in 'you'		with palatal vowels.
h		like ch in Ger. 'ach'		with guttural vowels;
		like ch in Ger. 'ich'		with palatal vowels.
k		like k in 'kite'		rarely used; see c
l		like l in 'land'
m		like m in 'man'
n		like n in 'night'
p		like p in 'pin'
q		like q in 'queen'		rarely used; see c
r		like trilled r in Sp. 'rueda'		[or perhaps merely flapped?]
s		like s in 'rising'		single letter between vowels;
		like s in 'sing'		otherwise.
t		like t in 'toy'
ð		like th in 'that'		rarely distinguished in writing from þ
þ		like th in 'thorn'		rarely distinguished in writing from ð
v		like v in 'viper'		rarely used; see f
w		like w in 'work'
x		like x in 'box'
z		like z in 'zephyr'		rarely used (usually ts)

Some pairs of consonants (digraphs) have special pronunciation:

Digraph		Pronunciation
cg		like j in 'just'
gg		like g in 'go'
ng		like ng in 'finger'
qu		like qu in 'quick' (but rarely used)
sc		like sh in 'ship' (but originally like sk)
ðð		like th in 'thorn' (never voiced)

The vowels have continental values:

Vowel		Pronunciation
a		like a in 'father'
ā		like aa in 'baah'
æ		like a in 'bat'
ǣ		like uy in 'buy'
e		like e in 'bet'
ē		like a in 'hate'
i		like i in 'bit'
ī		like ee in 'beet'
o		like o in 'pot'
ō		like oa in 'boat'
u		like u in 'put'
ū		like oo in 'boot'
y		early, like ü in Ger. 'füllen'; later, the y and i sounds merged
ȳ		early, like ü in Ger. 'fühlen'; later, the ȳ and ī sounds merged

Diphthongs are generally pronounced as the first vowel followed quickly by the second; for long diphthongs, lengthen the first vowel sound only.

2 Verb Inflection

Verbs are classed in two conjugations, weak and strong, in accordance with their means of producing the preterite (i.e. past) tense. This is produced by addition of a suffix -de (or -te) in weak verbs, e.g. hīere, hīerde 'hear, heard', or by internal vowel change called ablaut in strong verbs, e.g. binde, band 'bind, bound'. There are three classes of weak verbs, and seven classes of strong verbs; in addition there are six classes of preterite-present verbs, based on strong verb classes 1-6 in the present tense but incorporating weak verb suffixes in the preterite. These verb classes will be detailed in this and successive lessons.

As in modern English, there is only an active inflection; passives are formed with the auxiliaries bēon 'be', wesan 'be', and also with weorðan 'become' plus the infinitive. There are two tenses: present and preterite; three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative, each with two numbers: singular and plural; the plural in each mood has one form throughout, except in the preterite subjunctive which may have two. There are also three "nominal" forms: the gerund, present participle, and past participle.

N.B. A fourth mood, the optative, is occasionally noted in our glosses and other reference works; it is quite similar to the subjunctive mood, and indicates a wish or hope. But as the optative was in the process of being lost from Germanic languages in general, and is seldom if ever categorically distinguished from subjunctive in OE -- older texts often use the term "optative" exclusively, while newer texts often use the term "subjunctive" exclusively -- it will be ignored as such in our verb conjugations and discussion.

The present indicative and subjunctive as well as the present participle are given here for the strong verb bindan 'bind, fetter', and the weak verb hīeran 'hear, obey' from our text.

Present		Strong		Weak
Infinitive		bindan 'bind'		hīeran 'hear'
Indicative
1 Sg.		binde		hīere
2 Sg.		bindest/bintst		hīerst
3 Sg.		bindeð/bint		hīerð
Pl.		bindað		hīerað
Subjunctive
Sg.		binde		hīere
Pl.		binden		hīeren
Participle		bindende		hīerende

3 The Preterite System of Verbs

Verbs have preterite (past tense) forms in the indicative and the subjunctive. As is clear from the examples below (again using bindan 'bind, fetter' and hīeran 'hear, obey'), the number of potential forms has been greatly reduced, especially in the subjunctive.

Preterite		Strong		Weak
Indicative
1 Sg.		band 'bound'		hīerde 'heard'
2 Sg.		bunde		hīerdest
3 Sg.		band		hīerde
Pl.		bunden		hīerdon
Subjunctive
Sg.		bunde		hīerde
Pl.		bunden		hīerden
Participle		bunden		hīered

4 The Anomalous Verb wesan

So-called anomalous verbs have forms that are not always morphologically predictable (e.g., by adding inflectional suffixes), but are instead "suppletive," and hence must be learned ('supplied') by rote. They are, accordingly, neither weak nor strong. Modern English was, were provides a contemporary example of suppletion, which is commonly observed among Indo-European languages for the most basic verbs, pronouns, and a few other parts of speech.

Old English inherited from Proto-Germanic, its ancestral tongue, three different anomalous verbs for 'to be', none of them exhibiting [in surviving texts] a complete repertoire of forms. OE wesan (the infinitive) survives as a verb only in the two modern English forms was, were, although a relic is also observed in the word wassail, originally a salutation meaning 'be healthy'.

wesan 'be'		Preterite Indicative		Preterite Subjunctive		Imperative
1 Sg.		wæs 'was'		wǣre
2 Sg.		wǣre 'were'		wǣre		wes
3 Sg.		wæs		wǣre
Pl.		wǣron		wǣren		wesað

There are no present forms other than the participle wesende 'being'. As is often true in OE, forms of wesan were subject to alternative spelling, which includes in lesson 3 the 3rd person plural preterite indicative forms wǣran and wǣrun 'were'.

As in modern English, forms of the auxiliary wesan are used with the past participle to produce passives. An example in our lesson text is wæs cenned 'was born' (Beowulf 12), where the past participle lacks the prefix ge-; examples in the lesson 3 text are wæs geseted 'was appointed' and wæs gedēmed 'was deemed'. N.B. Passives can also be made with the auxiliary weorðan 'become', cf. the use in German of werden for the passive, as in Beowulf 6-7 wearð ... funden 'was found'.

The auxiliary wesan is also used as in modern English with the present participle to indicate ongoing action, as in wæs gongende 'was going' and sprecende wæs 'was speaking' (lesson 2).

5 Weak Verbs in Class I

As noted earlier, the weak preterite forms are produced by addition of the suffix -de (or -te) -- akin to modern English 'lived' formed from the infinitive 'live'. Here we begin to lay out full verb conjugations starting with Class I of the weak verbs. We use the same verb hīeran 'hear' that was introduced above, and other verbs with minor conjugational differences:

• mētan 'meet' (see text in lesson 3) because, in a devoiced context, t appears in place of d in the preterite suffix;
• werian 'wear' (also in lesson 3) because, for some verbs, the stem includes a residual -i- in certain forms;
• fremman 'perform' (this lesson) because, in certain forms like the infinitive, the final stem consonant is geminated.

Barring certain verbs that are exceptional owing to their derivational history, the same stem (e.g., hīer-) is employed in every form of a weak verb, though possibly with residual -i- or gemination. The suffixes are all standard for their person, number, tense, mood, etc., with possible devoicing.

Class I		Normal		Devoiced		Residual -i-		Geminated
Infinitive		hīeran 'hear'		mētan 'meet'		werian 'wear'		fremman 'perform'
Inflected Infin.		hīeranne		mētanne		werianne		fremmanne
Imperative Sg.		hīere		mēte		were		freme
Imperative Pl.		hīerað		mētað		weriað		fremmað
Pres. Participle		hīerende		mētende		weriende		fremmende
Past Participle		hīered		mēted		wered		fremed
Gerund		hīerenne		mētenne		werenne		fremmenne

Present Indicative		Normal		Devoiced		Residual -i-		Geminated
1 Sg.		hīere		mēte		werie		fremme
2 Sg.		hīerst		mētst		werest		fremest
3 Sg.		hīerð		mētð		wereð		fremeð
Plural		hīerað		mētað		weriað		fremmað

Present Subjunctive		Normal		Devoiced		Residual -i-		Geminated
Singular		hīere		mēte		werie		fremme
Plural		hīeren		mēten		werien		fremmen

Preterite Indicative		Normal		Devoiced		Residual		Geminated
1 Sg.		hīerde		mētte		werede		fremede
2 Sg.		hīerdest		mēttest		weredest		fremedest
3 Sg.		hīerde		mētte		werede		fremede
Plural		hīerdon		mētton		weredon		fremedon

Preterite Subjunctive		Normal		Devoiced		Residual		Geminated
Singular		hīerde		mētte		werede		fremede
Plural		hīerden		mētten		wereden		fremeden

The three "principal parts" of a weak verb are always its infinitive, its 1st/3rd person preterite singular, and its past participle. From these three forms, one may construct the complete conjugation.

A sampling of modern English verbs descended from other OE Weak I verbs found in our lesson texts includes deem, greet, leave, name, seek, send, set, think, wend, and work.

N.B. While conjugation tables like the above often attempt to list "all possible" forms of a verb, it is seldom the case that all such forms are attested in surviving OE texts. Rather, the forms are reconstructed using rules that have been deduced by [others] studying the verbs that are attested. Often, therefore, ignorance is being obscured. It is also true that attested verb forms may demonstrate exceptions to the rules: real languages are never so simple as linguists would have them be!

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