Grammatical Types and Classes of Verbs in Old English and Their Subsequent Evolution

According to the manner in which they form Old English verbs fall into 2 basic types: strong and weak.

The strong verbs form their past tense stems by gradation (ablaut) of the root vowel.

In Old English, as in other old Germanic languages, there were 7 gradation classes of strong verbs, each class showing a different alteration of the root vowel in the 4 variants of the stem represented in the following 4 principal parts of the verb:

I – the infinitive (the same stem variant is found in the present tense, the imperative and participle I);

II – the singular past indicative;

III – the plural past indicative (and the past subjunctive);

IV – participle II.

The gradation series of the various verb classes are represented in the following table.

I II III IV

Class I

ī ā i i

wrītan 'write' wrāt writon writen

Class II

ēo ēa u o

flēogan 'fly' flēag flugon flogen

Class III

a) (Alternating vowel followed by nasal + consonant)

I a u u

drincan 'drink' dranc druncon druncen

b) (Alternating vowel followed by l + consonant)

e ea u o

helpan 'help' healp hulpon holpen

c) (Alternating vowel followed by r + cons., h + cons.)

eo ea u o

steorfan 'die' steart sturfon storfen

feohtan 'fight' feaht fuhton fohten

Class IV

e æ ǣ o

stelan 'steal' stæl stǣlon stolen

beran 'bear' bær bǣron boren

Class V

e æ ǣ e

tredan 'tread' træd trǣdon treden

Class VI

a ō ō a

dragan 'draw' drōg drōgon dragen

Class VII

cnāwan 'know' cnēow cnēowon cnāwen

feallan 'fall' feoll feollon feallen

slǽpan 'sleep' slēp slēpon slǽpen

Weak Verbs form their past tense

(and participle2) by means of the suffix –d- or,after a voiceless root consonant,-t-.They have the same root vowel in the singular and the plural past tense, and consequently distinguish only 3principal parts: the infinitive the past tense and participle 2.

cēpan

e.g.:”keep” ---cēpte---cēpt

hīeran “hear “—hīerde--hīered

macian “make”—macode--macod

This way of forming the past tense is specifically Germanic, not found in other Indo-European languages.

Weak verbs alter their morphological characteristics mainly owing to sound changes.

The most important change which affected all the weak verbs was the weakening and loss of unstressed vowels.

The weak verbs are subdivided in 3groups, according to the stem-vowel joining the endings to the root.

They are:

1)The 1^st class, formerly with –ja in the present and I in the past. Its root-vowel is mutated; the dental suffix was joined to the root by I which had disappeared after long syllables (dēman—dēmde) and weakened to e after short syllables (fremman—fremede).

2) The 2^nd class has –ian in the infinitive <(ōjan) and o in the preterite. The vowel is not mutated.

3) The 3^rd class includes very few verbs: the dental suffix is joined immediately to the root; in the present there was j, but the 2^nd and 3^rd persons sg. show no trace of j. Classes Infinitive Past Tense Participle II NE I -an/ -ian -de/ede/-te -ed/-d/-t

styrian styrede styred stir

temman temede temed tame

dēman dēmde dēmed deem

cēpan cēpte cēped keep

tellan tealde teald tell

Þγncan Þūhte Þūht think

II -ian -ode -od

lōcian lōcode lōcod look

III -an -de -d

libban lifde lifd live