LESSONS IN ANGLO-SAXON.
Anglo-Saxon Letters—Their Names.
The Anglo-Saxon alphabet has twenty-four letters, namely, a, æ, b, d, dh, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, th, u, w (vv), x and y. All but three, dh, th, w, are Roman characters, the variations from the common form being cacographic fancies.
No difficulty is experienced by German-speaking students in calling the letters by their proper appellations as their resemblance to the German names, excepting in three instances, is very intimate and striking. Ah, ă, bay, cay, day, edh, ay, ef, gay, hah, ee, el, em, en, o, pay, er, es, tay, thorn, oo, wên, ex, ypsilon, express very accurately their syllabic representation.
An accent is found in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, but in none so regularly used as to become an objective feature of Anglo-Saxon text. It is found oftenest over a long vowel; sometimes over a vowel of peculiar sound, not long; seldom, except over syllables requiring a stress of voice. There are times, it seems, when nothing but stress is indicated. English editors represent it mostly by an acute accent, but the Germans generally print Anglo-Saxon with a circumflex over all single long sounds in the root of words, and an acute over the diphthongs; as brôder, freónd. In this book, an acute accent is used over all long vowels and diphthongs.
Sounds of Vowels.
A short or unaccented is sounded like a in man. It is often found in the final syllables of inflections, and generally appears in the radix before a doubled consonant, or two different consonants.
The radical short a can only stand before a single consonant, and st, sc, when this single consonant and these double letters are followed in the inflections by a, o, u in nouns; a, o, u, e in adjectives; and a, o, u, and ia in verbs.
Specially important are the remarks contained in the last paragraph in the declension of words, for, monosyllables, ending in a single consonant, in st, or sc, reject the e from the short æ, and leave the short a alone, whenever, in declining, the consonant or consonants happen to be followed by a, o, u in nouns, and a, o, u, e in adjectives.
It must be remembered, then, that a short a cannot stand in a word. 1. When it ends in a single consonant, that is, when no inflection of a, o, u in nouns follow, as in stæf. 2. When in nouns a single consonant is followed by e, as in wæter. 3. When the word has any other double consonants than st, sc, even though followed by a, o, u, as in cræft. 4. In contracted words, when æ is not in the last syllable, as in æcer.
When the á is accented it is then long, and words containing this long or accented á are now represented by English terms with the vowel sounded like o in no and in bone. Hám home, bán, bone, án, one, stán, stone, have either the same or an analogous meaning in English and Anglo-Saxon. Sometimes the accented or long á is represented in English by oa, as ác, an oak, gád, a goad, lám, lome. Occasionally, á becomes oe in English, as dá, a doe, fá, a foe, rá, a roe, but the ae in these words has the sound of o in no. The same may be said of oa in boar. Hence, it appears that the Anglo-Saxon á is represented by the modern English o, oa, and oe, which have the sound of o in no, or bone. The long á is often changed into æ, as lár, lore, lǽran, to teach.
-A, added to words, denotes a person, an agent, an actor, hence,—All names ending in a are masculine, and make the genitive in an, as from cum, come (thou), cuma, a person who comes, or a guest, is derived. Some words, denoting inanimate things, terminate in a, and these words, having the same declension as those which signify persons or actors, are also masculine. A- is an inseparable prefix, denoting negation, determination or opposition, as from, out, away. A- does not always appear to alter the signification, but generally, however, it adds some little force or intensity to the original meaning of the word to which it is joined.
Anglo-Saxon words, containing the short or unaccented vowel e, are often represented by modern English words of the same meaning, having the sound of e in fed, as nett, bedd, webb. Before a double consonant, two different consonants, or one or two consonants when followed by a long or final vowel, the short e is most generally used.
Words containing the long or accented é are very frequently represented by English terms of the same meaning, and have the sound of e in meet. Long é is used, as in thé, at the end of words, and before the consonants l, m, n, r, s, t, d, dh, c, g and f.
-E, in the ending of nouns, denotes a person, as hyrde, a shepherd, from hyrdan, to guard. It is also used to form nouns denoting inanimate objects, as cyle, cold, but these are mostly derived from verbs, and hence are masculine; but, when they come from adjectives, they are feminine. Final e is the termination of derivative adjectives, and is also the usual letter by which adjectives ending in a consonant become adverbs.
Unaccented i has the sound of i in fin, as is evidenced by the following Anglo-Saxon words which have the same meaning in English as in Saxon:—tin, dim, scip, wit, ribb, milc, etc.
I long has the sound of i in fine, as in the cognate words, tíne, wín, díc, hwíl.
The verbal termination ian, or with a consonant before the i—cian, gian, nian, sian—is the most simple and universal. It is joined to various parts of speech, but especially to nouns and pronouns. These verbs almost always make the perfect tense in ode, and the perfect participle in od. Verbs thus formed from adjectives are generally neuter, but they become active by prefixing ge, as lytl, little, lytlian, to become little, gelytlian, to diminish.
I and ie are often used for g, ge, y, and e.
Short o, in Anglo-Saxon, has probably the sound of o in for, as corn, horn, loc.
O, accented, was sounded in Saxon as oo in cook, as proved by the cognate words cóc, bóc, gód, cól, fót, etc.
Final o is chiefly used to form the names of qualities from adjectives, as menigeo, the many, multitude. Nouns ending in o are feminine and indeclinable, but they often end in u, and in that case have a regular feminine declension.
A few nouns in final o are neuter, and make the genitive in ewes, as ealo, ale, genitive ealewes.
The unaccented u in Anglo-Saxon had most probably the sound of u in fun, as testified to by butt, dun, munc, up, etc., which have the same meaning in English as in Saxon.
Long ú had the sound of ou, or ow, in about, foul, house, town, as fúl, hú, mús, nú, úre, Saxon words which have the same signification, as their English representatives most plainly show.
Eo are sometimes used for u, as sweord, swurd, and y for ú, as swytol, swútol. In later times, u was employed for f and v, as luue, lufe, Dauid, David.
Some few names ending in u are masculine or neuter, but they are mostly feminine, and form the names of qualities from adjectives.
Short u or accented Anglo-Saxon y had the y sounded as in mystery, duty, as tynder, hyp, syn, mynster, which are represented by modern English words of like signification.
The long or accented y had the sound of y in type, sky, as will be evident from the following cognate words: lýs, fýr, hýd, brýd, and lýf.
Unaccented i is often used for y, and long i for y; as lístan, litel, minster for lystan, lytel, mynster, and fír, bríd, líf, for fýr, brýd, lýf.
Sounds of Consonants.
The consonants have their common English sounds: c, like k, always; ch, like kh, in work-house; cw, like qu; dh, like English th in a similar word, as ódher, other, dódh, doth; g, like g in go, always; h, very distinct; hw, like wh in New England; i (= j), before a vowel, like y; s, like s in so; t, like t in to; th, like th in thin; w, like w; wl, wr, and final w nearly close the lips; x, like ks.
Accent—Its Use.
The primary accent is on the first syllable of every word: as, bródʹ-her, brother; unʹ-cúdh, uncouth.
Proper prefixes in verbs and participles take no primary accent; such are á, an, and, æt, be, bi, ed, far, ful, ge, geord, in, mis, ódh, of, ofer, on, or, tó, thurh, un, under, widh, widher, ymb, ymbe: an-ginʹ-nan, begin; on-geánʹ, again. The syllable after the prefix assumes the accent.
Derivatives from nouns, pronouns, or adjectives, retain their accent. Such are all verbs in and-, ed-, or-, found in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and many adverbs in un-, etc.
Compounds, formed of adverbs and verbs, retain their accent. Such are these with æfter, bí, bíg, efen, eft, fore, ford, from, fram, hider, mid, midher, gegn, geán, gén, tó, up, út, wel.
The inseparable prefixes á-, be- (bi-), for-, ge-, are unaccented; as, á-lýsʹ-ing, redemption.
A secondary accent may fall in the tone syllable of the lighter part of a compound or on a suffix; as, ó-fer-cumʹ-an, overcome.
Euphonic Changes.
Gemination is the doubling of a letter. When final, or next to a consonant, it is simplified, mm changing to mb, nn to nd, ss to st, ii to ig, un to up: as, timbr for timmr, timber; spindl for spinnl, spindle; lufast for lufass, lovest; lufige for lufie, love; bearupes for bearuues, grove. Double g is written cg, and double f, bb.
Umlaut is the assimilation of a vowel by the vowel of the succeeding syllable: a-umlaut changes i to e (eo), u to o; i-umlaut, a to e, u to y, ea to y, eo to y, á to ǽ, ó to é, ú to ý, eá to y, eó to ý; u-umlaut, a to ea (o), i to eo. The i which produces i-umlaut is often changed to e or dropped: as, man, plural men, from meni; fót, plural fét, feet, from féti.
Breaking is the change of one vowel to two by a consonant. G, c, and ac may break a following a to ea, o to eo, i to ie, á to eá, ó to eó; l, r and h may break a preceding a to ea, i to eo (io), ie: as, geaf, gave; sceó, shoe; sealm, psalm; hleator, laughter; meolc, milk.
Shifting is the weakening of a letter not produced by other letters: a to æ, ǽ to é, eá and eó to é, etc.; dæg, from dag, day.
Nouns—Their Declension.
There are two classes of declensions of Anglo-Saxon nouns:—Strong, those which have sprung from vowel stems, and weak, that which has sprung from stems in an. Of the four declensions, the first, second and third are distinguished by the genitive singular ending in es, e, and a, respectively, and the fourth by its termination in an.
Strong nouns have all masculines of the first or third declension; all feminines of the second or third, and all neuters of the first.
Abstract nouns have their gender controlled by the terminations. In derivatives, the feminine gender prevails, while compound nouns follow the gender of the last part.
Names of males, of the moon, and of many weeds, flowers, winds, are masculine. Nouns representing names of females, of the sun, and of many trees, rivers, and soft and low musical instruments, are feminine. Neuter nouns are names of wife, child, as well as diminutives, many general names, and words made an object of thought.
Epicene nouns have one grammatical gender, but are used for both sexes. Names of mammalia, except a few little timid ones, are masculine. Large and fierce birds are masculine; others, especially singing-birds, are feminine; large fishes are masculine, small, feminine; insects are feminine.
While in English there are but three cases, in Anglo-Saxon there are six. The nominative and vocative are always alike; the nominative, accusative, and vocative are alike in all plurals, and in the singular of all neuters and strong masculines. The genitive plural ends always in á or ená, and the dative and instrumental always in um (on).
Names of women in u or a consonant are strong, those in e or a are weak; while those of men in u, e or a consonant are strong, and those in a are weak.
Adjectives.—Their Degrees.
Adjectives, in Anglo-Saxon, have one set of strong and one set of weak endings for each gender. The latter are used when the adjective is preceded by the definite article or some word analogous thereto. Hence, there are two declensions: the definite and the indefinite.
Degrees of quantity or quality in adjectives are shown by comparison. They are regularly compared by suffixing to the theme of the primitive ir, er or or for the theme of the comparative, and ist, est or ost for that of the superlative.
Verbs.—Their Attributes.
Verbs have two voices. The active represents the subject as acting, the passive as affected by the action. The active has inflective endings for many forms, the passive only for a participle. Other passive forms help this participle with the auxiliary verbs eom (am), beón, wesan, weordhan. There is, however, a middle voice, which represents the subject as affected by its own action; but, as this is expressed in Anglo-Saxon by adding pronouns, no paradigms are necessary.
There are six moods. The indicative states or asks about a fact; the subjunctive a possibility; the imperative commands or entreats; the infinitives (and gerunds) are substantives, and the participles adjectives. Certain forms of possibility are expressed by auxiliary modal verbs with the infinitive, and these are conveniently called a potential mode.
Five tenses, present, imperfect, future, perfect and pluperfect, are found in the language. The present and imperfect have tense stems; the future is expressed by the present, or by the aid of seal (shall) or wille (will); the perfect by help of the present of habban (have) or, with some intransitives, beón (be), wesan or weordhan (be); the pluperfect by the aid of the imperfect of habban, beón, wesan, or weordhan.
Verbs are classified for conjugation by the stems of the imperfect tense. Strong verbs express tense by varying the root vowel; weak verbs by composition. Strong verbs in the imperfect indicative singular first person have the root vowel unchanged, or changed by accent, which is called progression, or by contraction with old reduplication. There are six conjugations. No change is manifest in the root vowel in the first conjugation; the second, third and fourth are varied by accent or progression; the fifth by contraction, and the sixth by composition.
Since all the names derivable from verbs, with which we have to deal in the present work, are concerned with the present infinitive, present indicative of the first person, and perfect participle, it is unnecessary to enter into any elaboration of the verbal inflections. What is needful to be said will appear in its proper place in the derivations.