Anglo-Saxon Primer, With Grammar, Notes, and Glossary / Eighth Edition Revised

The others up to twęntiġ are generally indeclinable. Those in -tiġ are sometimes declined like neuter nouns, sometimes like adjectives, and are often left undeclined. When not made into adjectives they govern the genitive.

Hund and þūsend are either declined as neuters or left undeclined, always taking a genitive:—eahta hund mīla (eight hundred miles), fēower þūsend wera (four thousand men).

Units are always put before tens:—ān and twęntiġ (twenty-one).

The ordinals are always weak, except ōþer, which is always strong.

PRONOUNS.

PERSONAL.

There are no reflexive pronouns in O.E., and the ordinary personal pronouns are used instead:—hīe ġe·samnodon hīe (they collected themselves, assembled); hīe ā·bǣdon him wīf (they asked for wives for themselves). Self is used as an emphatic reflexive adjective agreeing with its pronoun:—swā swā hīe wȳsċton him selfum (as they wished for themselves).

POSSESSIVE.

Mīn (my), þīn (thy), ūre (our), ēower (your), and the dual uncer and incer are declined like other adjectives. The genitives his (his, its), hiere (her), hiera (their) are used as indeclinable possessives.

INTERROGATIVE.

Hwelc (which) is declined like a strong adjective: it is used both as a noun and an adjective.

DEMONSTRATIVE.

Se is both a demonstrative and a definite article. It is also used as a personal pronoun:—hē ġe·hīerþ mīn word, and wyrċþ þā (he hears my words, and does them). Sē as a demonstrative and pers. pronoun has its vowel long.

Other demonstratives, which are used both as nouns and as adjectives, are se ilca (same), which is always weak, swelc (such), which is always strong.

RELATIVE.

The regular relative is the indeclinable þe, as in ǣlc þāra þe þās mīn word ġe·hīerþ (each of those who hears these my words). It is often combined with sē, which is declined:—sē þe = who, masc., sēo þe, fem., &c. Sē alone is also used as a relative:—hēr is mīn cnapa, þone ic ġe·ċēas (here is my servant, whom I have chosen); sometimes in the sense of 'he who':—hēr þū hæfst þæt þīn is (here thou hast that which is thine).

INDEFINITE.

Indefinites are formed with swā and the interrogative pronouns, thus:—swā hwā swā, swā hwelċ swā (whoever), swā hwæt swā (whatever).

Ān and sum (some) are used in an indefinite sense:—ān mann, sum mann = 'a certain man,' hence 'a man.' But the indefinite article is generally not expressed.

Ǣlċ (each), ǣniġ (any), nǣniġ (no, none), are declined like other adjectives.

Ōþer (other) is always strong:—þā ōþre męnn.

Man, another form of mann, is often used in the indefinite sense of 'one,' French on:—his brōþor Horsan man of·slōg (they killed his brother Horsa).

VERBS.

There are two classes of verbs in O.E., strong and weak. The conjugation of strong verbs is effected mainly by means of vowel-gradation, that of weak verbs by the addition of d (-ode, -ede, -de) to the root-syllable.

The following is the conjugation of the strong verb bindan (bind), which will serve to show the endings which are common to all verbs:—

For the plural bindaþ, both indicative and imperative, binde is used when the personal pronoun follows immediately after the verb:—wē bindaþ (we bind), but binde wē (let us bind); so also gāþ! (go plur.), but gā ġē! (go ye).

The present participle may be declined like an adjective. Its declension when used as a noun is given above, p. 10.

The past participle generally prefixes ġe-, as in ġe·bunden, ġe·numen from niman (take), unless the other parts of the verbs have it already, as in ġe·hīeran (hear), ġe·hīered. It is sometimes prefixed to other parts of the verb as well. No ġe is added if the verb has another prefix, such as ā-, be-, for-; thus for·ġiefan (forgive) has the past participle for·ġiefen. The past participle may be declined like an adjective.

Traces of an older passive voice are preserved in the form hāt-te from hātan (call, name), which is both present 'is called,' and preterite 'was called':—se munuc hātte Abbo (the monk's name was Abbo).

STRONG VERBS.

In the strong verbs the plural of the pret. indic. generally has a different vowel from that of the sing. (ic band, wē bundon). The 2nd sing. pret. indic. and the whole pret. subj. always have the vowel of the preterite plural indicative (þū bunde, ic bunde, wē bunden.)

The 2nd and 3rd persons sing. of the pres. indic. often mutate the root-vowel, thus:—

The full ending of the 3rd pers. sing. pres. indic. is -eþ, which is generally contracted, with the following consonant-changes:—

Double consonants become single, as in hē fielþ from feallan.

Before the -st of the 2nd pers. consonants are often dropt, as in þū cwist from cweþan, þū ċīest from ċēosan; and d becomes t, as in þū bintst from bindan.

For the changes between s and r, þ and d, g and h, see p. 7.

Some verbs, such as sēon (see), drop the h and contract before most inflections beginning with a vowel:—ic sēo, wē sēoþ, tō sēonne; but hē sihþ.

There are seven conjugations of strong verbs, distinguished mainly by the different formation of their preterites. The following lists comprise all the strong verbs that occur in the texts given in this book, together with several others of the commoner ones.

I. 'Fall'-conjugation.

The pret. sing. and pl. has ēo or ē, and the past partic. retains the original vowel of the infinitive.

II. 'Shake'-conjugation.

Verbs in a (ea) and ę (ie). Ō in pret. sing, and pl., a (æ) in partic. pret. Standan drops its n in the pret. The partic. pret. of swęrian is irregular.

The presents of these verbs are inflected weak, so that their imperative sing. is hęfe and swęre, like that of węnian (p. 32). Swęrian has indic. swęrige, swęrest, like węnian; hębban has hębbe, hęfst, &c. like hīeran (p. 30).

III. 'Bind'-conjugation.

I (ie, e, eo) followed by two consonants, one or both of which is nearly always a liquid (l, r) or nasal (m, n) in the infin., a (æ, ea) in pret. sing., u in pret. pl., u (o) in ptc. pret. Findan has a weak preterite.

IV. 'Bear'-conjugation.

Verbs in e (i), followed by a single consonant, generally a liquid or nasal; in brecan the liquid precedes the vowel. A (æ) in pret. sing., ǣ (ā) in pret. pl., o (u) in ptc. pret. Cuman is irregular.

V. 'Give'-conjugation.

Verbs in e (i, eo, ie) followed by single consonants, which are not liquids or nasals. This class differs from the last only in the ptc. pret. which keeps the vowel of the infinitive.

VI. 'Shine'-conjugation.

Verbs in ī, with pret. sing, in ā, pl. i, ptc. pret. i.

VII. 'Choose'-conjugation.

Verbs in ēo and ū, with pret. sing. ēa, pl. u, ptc. pret. o. Flēon and tēon contract.

WEAK VERBS.

There are three conjugations of weak verbs—(1) in -an, pret. -de (hīeran, hīerde, 'hear'); (2) in -ian, pret. -ede (węnian, węnede, 'wean'); (3) in -ian, pret. -ode (lufian, lufode, 'love'). The verbs of the first two conjugations nearly all have a mutated vowel in the present and infinitive, which those of the third conjugation very seldom have.

I. an-verbs.

This class of weak verbs has the same endings as the strong verbs, except in the pret. and past partic., which are formed by adding -de and -ed respectively, with the following consonant changes.

The past partic. is generally contracted in the same way:—sęnd, mētt, tǣht, but some of them often retain the uncontracted forms:—fylled, dypped. When declined like adjectives they drop their e where practicable:—fylled, plur. fylde; hīered, hīerde.

The 2nd and 3rd pres. sing. ind. are contracted as in the strong verbs.

(a) 'Hear'-class.

Further examples of this class are:—

(b) 'Seek'-class.

In this class the mutated vowels lose their mutation in the preterite and past partic., besides undergoing other changes in some verbs.

Those in double consonants (and ċġ) simplify them in the contracted 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. indic.:—sęlle, sęlst, sęlþ; sęċ[,g]e, sęġst, sęġþ; also in the imperative, which is formed as in Conj. II:—sęle, sęġe, byġe, &c.

II. 'Wean'-conjugation.

So are conjugated all weak verbs with a short mutated root syllable, such as fęrian (carry), węrian (defend), ġe·byrian (befit). There are not many of them.

III. 'Love'-conjugation.

So also āscian (ask), macian (make), weorþian (honour), and many others.

Irregularities.

Some verbs are conjugated partly after I, partly after III. Such are habban (have) and libban (live).

Habban has pres. indic. hæbbe, hæfst, hæfþ; habbaþ, subj. hæbbe, hæbben, pret. hæfde, imper. hafa, habbaþ, particc. habbende, hæfd.

Libban has pres. libbe, leofast, leofaþ; libbaþ, subj. libbe, pret. leofode, imper. leofa, libbaþ, particc. libbende, lifiende; leofod.

Fętian (fetch) has pret. fętte.

STRONG-WEAK VERBS.

The strong-weak verbs have for their presents old strong preterites, from which new weak preterites are formed. Note the occasional second person sing. in t.

The other most important weak-strong verbs are given below in the 1st and 2nd sing. pres. indic., in the plur. indic., in the pret., in the infin. and partic. pret. Of several the last two forms are doubtful, or do not exist.

Āh (possess), āge, āgon; āhte; āgen (only as adjective)^[4].

Cann (know) canst, cunnon; cūþe; cunnan; cūþ (only as adjective.)

Dearr (dare), durre, durron; dorste.

Ġe·man (remember), -manst; -munde; -munan.

Mæġ (can), miht, magon, mæġe (subj.); mihte.

Mōt (may), mōst, mōton; mōste.

Sċeal (shall), sċealt, sculon, scyle (subj.); scolde.

Þearf (need), þurfon, þyrfe (subj.); þorfte; þurfan.

ANOMALOUS VERBS.

(1) Willan (will) shows a mixture of subj. forms in the pres. indic. sing.:—

Similarly nyllan (will not):—

(2) Wesan (be).

The contracted negative forms are:—neom, neart, nis; næs, nǣre, nǣron; nǣre, nǣren.

(3) Dōn (do).