Download Old English Grammar, Basically. GENERALIZATIONS Remember

Old English Grammar, Basically.
Lecture Goal(s): To introduce the essentials of Old English grammar necessary to a basic
appreciation of the inflectional nature of inflection. A secondary purpose is to provide the
tools necessary to the completion of Assignment 2b.
GENERALIZATIONS
o Remember that Old English is a highly synthetic or inflected language, so you cannot hope to open a book of Old English and simply start reading. o Gaining the essentials of the grammar necessary to a rudimentary reading ability requires several weeks of training. o In fact, learning Old English is much like learning a different language. o In all likelihood Chaucer would have been unable to read Old English and he lived only 400 years after the Norman Conquest. o We, on the other hand, are 800 years away from the end of the Anglo-­‐Saxon period, so don’t be too hard on yourself just yet. GENDER
o There are three genders in Old English, masculine, feminine and neuter (neuter simply means ‘neither’). o Generally, the gender of a noun is ‘natural,’ so that masculine things are masculine and feminine things are feminine, etc. o Notable exceptions occur, however, so the safest bet is to look up the gender in the dictionary. ‘wife’ (wif) is neuter, for example. o This is a good practice especially in the beginning stages of learning. 1
Old English Grammar, Basically.
THE CASE SYSTEM
o Old English has a case system to distinguish the function of word in a given grammatical situation. o In Old English, there are 4 cases, each of which signifies a different grammatical function—subject of the sentence, direct object, etc. o For example, when the word ‘king’ serves as the subject of a sentence in the singular, we say ‘cyning’ (which is its base form). o When we want to say ‘kings,’ however, we say ‘cyningas.’ o Because Old English uses many different endings to signify these grammatical functions, Old English affords greater variety in word order than Modern English does. o In Modern English, word order is rather more fixed, since we no longer have many endings to tell us what function a word serves. o Not necessarily so in Old English (though word order does matter). o The 4 cases of Old English and what they signify are as follows: o Nominative: The subject of the sentence. o Accusative: The direct object of the sentence. o Genitive: The possessive (‘of’ someone or something). o Dative: The indirect object. o Generally these are the formal terms we use when we’re translating the language and discussing the grammar. o We don’t say, ‘that’s the direct object,’ but ‘that’s the accusative.’ 2
Old English Grammar, Basically.
o Also, Old English grammars almost unanimously give the four cases in this order, which is why I have done so. o They do it, because the nominative and accusative are often the same form. The word cyning (king), e.g. has the same form in the nominative and accusative. The feminine noun, cwen, does not. o If you know other languages, you may find that grammars for them order things differently. Latin and Greek, e.g. o When you get to class, we’ll talk more about the different endings that characterize each of these cases. o I’ll also give you some model nouns to contextualize the endings. NUMBER
o ‘Number’ is the term we use to describe the singularity or plurality of a word, typically nouns, adjectives and pronouns. o So we mean the ‘singular’ and the ‘plural’ when we talk about number. o When you ‘decline’ a noun (the technical term for analyzing its grammatical endings) we say, for example, that cyningas is ‘masculine, nominative, singular.’ o This agreed on system of classification allows students and teachers of Old English to understand one another. o All nouns, adjectives and pronouns have gender, number and case. 3
Old English Grammar, Basically.
NOUNS
Basics: We refer to Old English nouns in one of two ways: ‘weak’ or ‘strong.’
We have the Grimm brothers to thank for these terms. In their Deutsche
Grammatik (1822), a pioneering comparative grammar of the Germanic
languages, Jacob Grimm labeled ‘weak’ nouns as those that were innovations
in the Germanic family of languages (i.e. more recent). ‘Strong’ nouns
display(ed) features of Indo-European (i.e. older). Parenthetically, the same
terms, ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ apply to Old English verbs and for the reason
(though not so with adjectives).
o Mitchell and Robinson’s Guide to Old English—a standard OE grammar in universities—has more to say about the different nouns and adjectives of the Old English period. o I refer you to them for information beyond what I give here. o Let’s start with the basics. o Weak nouns: represent about 30% of Old English nouns. Strong nouns about 60%. 10% are irregular (like man>men). o Weak nouns take only a few endings, typically –an in most ‘cases.’ o Really, the only difference between weak nouns of the three genders is the nominative (i.e. subject), where we find a different vowel. o Weak masculines have an ‘a’ in the nominative singular; feminine and neuter nouns have an ‘e.’ Otherwise, the endings are fairly uniform. o cyrice (‘church’) is an example of a weak feminine noun (they all end in –e in the nominative). nama is an example of a weak masculine noun (they all end in –a in the nominative). There are only 2 neuter nouns (eage and eare, ‘eye’ and ‘ear’), mercifully. 4
Old English Grammar, Basically.
o The long and the short of it: weak nouns really only differ from one another in the nominative singular. o Strong Nouns: more complicated. 60% of nouns are strong. o Basics: Think of these as ‘regular’ nouns. o Most of them end in a consonant, which makes them easier to identify. Just take off the endings—which indicate the grammatical function—and you’ve got the basic word in the nominative. o For example, once you know that all nouns end in –um in the dative plural, you know that the base form of stanum is stan (‘stone’). o Other observations … o For Masculine nouns: the Nominative and accusative are the same. o All strong masculine nouns work this way. So, how do you know if a masculine noun is weak or strong? If it ends in a vowel it’s weak. Otherwise, it’s strong (i.e. has a consonant in the nominative sing.). o In the neuter: the nominative and accusative of neuter nouns, weak or strong, is always the same. o Strong neuter nouns may have a –u in the plural, e.g. scip (if the stem of the word is short). o One ship = scip. Two ships = scipu. o Strong neuter nouns with a long stem vowel have what’s called a zero ending. Some editions mark long vowels with a macron (-­‐); otherwise, you learn vowel length from pronunciation and with the help of your teacher, who knows just about everything there is to know. o Tip: you can tell when a stem is long (on any noun) when the vowel is followed by 2 consonants. Thus ‘word’ in OE is a long-­‐stem neuter and so is ‘cild’ (child), because two consonants follow the vowel. 5
Old English Grammar, Basically.
o What does this mean? o It means that, in the plural, the plural of the word word is word, not words or wordas or anything like that. o So how do you know if it’s plural then? o Context and grammatical information from other words around it. o For example, if you read ‘ðæt word,’ you know it’s singular. o But if you read ‘þa word, you know it’s plural. o In this case, the demonstrative pronoun (the/that) tells you the number of the noun. o Another rule: ‘Agreement.’ adjectives and pronouns must agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case, which means, if you can’t figure out the number or case of a noun, looking at the accompanying adjective or pronoun will often help. o Feminine strong nouns will have –u in singular if they’re short-­‐
stemmed (e.g. giefu, ‘gift’) or nothing in the feminine, nominative singular, if they’re long (e.g. cwen, ‘queen’). o Need help when translating???: When you see a noun you don’t know, look it up. Based on what you see in the gloss/dictionary, you can deduce what category the noun fits into. o Without a dictionary, there’s no reliable way to know what gender a noun is. o You could never predict that ‘wife’ is neuter. 6
Old English Grammar, Basically.
o Summary: o 1) If you look up a noun in the dictionary and see that it’s masculine and ending in a consonant, you know it’s a strong noun and works like ‘cyning.’ o 1b) If you look up the noun and see masculine with an –a on the end, you know it’s weak and works like ‘nama.’ o 2) If you look up a noun and see it’s neuter. 99% it’s strong and works like ‘scip’ or ‘word.’ It will depend on stem length (look for double consonants). o 2b) If it’s neuter and ends in –e. it’s weak, but only eage and eare do this. o 3) If you look up a noun and see that it’s feminine and ends in –e, it’s weak and declines like cyrice or sunne (p. 20) Mitchell and Rob say little about these nouns, because they’re so easy. o 3b) If you look up a noun and see that it’s feminine and it ends in –u or a consonant, it works like ‘giefu’ or ‘cwen.’ o Otherwise, if you can’t find a word in the gloss/dictionary, the word has undergone some stem-­‐vowel change like mann>menn or daeg>daga, and it’s one of those 10% irregular nouns. o A common culprit is something called i-­‐mutation, which refers to the presence of an –i that has since disappeared but not before leaving its impression on the neighboring vowel. o Mann>menn is a common example. o I know this is a basic introduction to nouns, but it will get you going. 7
Old English Grammar, Basically.
OE VERBS
o Weak/Strong: Like nouns, there are weak verbs and strong verbs, but
strong verbs undergo a vowel change. That said, many of these changes are
familiar to us in what we call irregular verbs, like ‘sing, sang, sung.’
o This process of vowel change in strong verbs is called ‘gradation’ or
‘ablaut,’ should you wish to consult a grammar.
o We English speakers take this stuff for granted, but if you’re learning
English as a second language and your first language is not of IndoEuropean descent, you can appreciate the potential difficulty.
o Limited verbal system: The verbal system as a whole is less complex than
many other languages: there is no separate form for the future tense, and
many of the verbal endings are the same, esp. in the plural (cf. weak nouns).
o Principal parts: That said, the reality of endings different from modern
English requires us to memorize forms of the verb that will determine
endings (as with nouns). For this reason we learn “principle parts” of verbs.
Every OE verb has three principle parts (inf/past. sing./pp). These three
parts contain all the info needed for all the different characteristics that
define verbs. These characteristics are very specific, consistent, and
common to all verbs.
o Parsing verbs: When we want to give all of the grammatical information
that a verb contains through its inflectional endings, we ‘parse’ it.
o Scholars and students use a set paradigm for this in order to ‘speak the same
language.’
o Some we parse a verb according to these categories, about which I’ll say
more in class.
o person, number, tense, mood, voice.
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Old English Grammar, Basically.
WEAK/STRONG VERBS
q Weak verbs end in what’s called a dental suffix, a ‘d.’ Verbs that end in –ed
or –t in the past tense in Modern English are the descendants of these OE
weak verbs. So Old English weak verb sendan = sent; hieran=heard;
ascian/ascode=asked.
q Strong verbs show vowel change in the stem. So ‘sing, sang, sung,’ is a
strong verb, originating in Old English. Ic singe to daeg; giesterdaeg ic
sang; and hit waes sungen. There are many others, most of which you’ll
recognize.
q One more thing: In the dictionary, weak verbs are designated by roman
numerals, I, II, II, while strong verbs are designated by the Arabic
numerals, 1-7.
q Class I Weak verb fremman.
q This is a Class I week verb. Class I verbs are identified by their past tense in
–ede/-edon. Otherwise, they’re indistinguishable from the other two classes.
q Class II verbs have –ode/odon in the past tense. Lufian is an example (‘to
love’).
q Class three verbs are irregular, in that they display features of both I and II
(good news: there are four of these!). habban, libban, secgan, hycgan
(have, live, say, think). They’re common verbs.
BASIC OE PARADIGMS NEXT PAGE
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Old English Grammar, Basically.
Demonstrative Pronoun S
I
N
G.
Weak Nouns P
L
U
R.
S
I
N
G.
P
L
U
R.
Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat. Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat. Masculine se þone þæs þǣm, þām þā þā þāra, þǣra þǣm, þām Feminine sēo þā þǣre þǣre þā þā þāra, þǣra þǣm, þām Neuter þæt þæt þæs þǣm, þām þā þā þāra, þǣra þǣm, þām Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat. Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat. Masculine nama naman naman naman naman naman namena namum Feminine ċirice ċirican ċirican ċirican ċirican ċirican ċiricena ċiricum Neuter eage eage eagan eagan eagan eagan eagena eagum Old English Grammar, Basically.
Strong Nouns The Verb ‘to be’ S
I
N
G.
P
L
U
R.
S
I
N
G.
P
L
U
R.
Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat. Nom. Acc. Gen. Dat. Masculine cyning cyning cyninges cyninge cyningas cyningas cyninga cyningum Feminine (Short Stem) ġiefu ġiefe ġiefe ġiefe ġiefa ġiefa ġiefena ġiefum Feminine (Long Stem) lār lāre lāre lāre lāra lāra lārena lārum Present Tense iċ eom bēo ‘I am’ þū eart bist ‘you are’ hē/hēo/hit is biþ ‘he/she/it is’ wē sindon/sint bēoþ ‘we are’ ġē sindon/sint bēoþ ‘you are’ hīe, hī, hēo sindon/sint bēoþ ‘they are’ 11
Neuter (Short Stem) scip scip scipes scipe scipu scipu scipa scipum iċ þū hē/hēo/hit wē ġē hīe, hī, hēo Neuter (Long Stem) word word wordes worde word word worda wordum Past Tense wæs ‘I was’ wǣre ‘you were’ wæs ‘he/she/it was’ wǣron ‘we were’ wǣron ‘you were’ (pl.) wǣron ‘they were’ Old English Grammar, Basically.
Weak Verb Class I ‘fremman’ (‘to do’) S
iċ I
þū N
hē/hēo/hit G.
P
wē L
ġē U
hīe, hī, hēo R.
Weak Verb Class II ‘lufian’ (‘to love’) S
I
N
G.
P
L
U
R.
iċ þū hē/hēo/hit wē ġē hīe, hī, hēo Present Tense fremme ‘I do’ fremst, -­‐est ‘you do’ fremþ, -­‐eþ ‘he/she/it does’ fremmaþ ‘we do’ fremmaþ ‘you do’ (pl.) fremmaþ ‘they do’ Present Tense lufie ‘I love’ lufast ‘you love’ lufaþ ‘he/she/it loves’ lufiaþ ‘we love’ lufiaþ ‘you love’ (pl.) lufiaþ ‘they love’ 12
iċ þū hē/hēo/hit wē ġē hīe, hī, hēo Past Tense fremede ‘I did’ fremedest ‘you did’ fremede ‘he/she/it did’ fremedon ‘we did’ fremedon ‘you did’ (pl.) fremedon ‘they did’ iċ þū hē/hēo/hit wē ġē hīe, hī, hēo Past Tense lufode ‘I loved’ lufodest ‘you loved’ lufode ‘he/she/it loved’ lufodon ‘we loved’ lufodon ‘you loved’ (pl.) lufodon ‘they loved’