Old English Grammar, Part 1

Old English Grammar, Part 1
Review very carefully, so you can readily recognize and identify, any form of the following.
1. Personal pronouns: all persons and genders, singular and plural (skip the dual); Bright p. 23

2. Verbs for “to be,” beon and wesan, in the present and preterit indicative; Bright p. 26

Memorize the following paradigms
1. The paradigm for the demonstrative pronoun “the/that”; Bright p. 32
Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural (all genders)

Nominative se seo ðæt ða

Genitive ðæs ðære ðæs ðara

Dative ðæm ðære ðæm ðæm

Accusative ðone ða ðæt ða

Instrumental ðy ðære ðy ðæm

2. The endings for a-stem masculine nouns, like stan, Bright p. 46
Singular Plural

Nominative -- stan -as stanas

Genitive -es stanes -a stana

Dative -e stane -um stanum

Accusative -- stan -as stanas

Instrumental -e stane -um stanum

Notice that the a-stem neuter endings differ only from the masculine in the nominative and accusative plural (-u), Bright p. 47
3. The endings for o-stem feminine nouns, like giefu and lar, Bright p. 49
Singular Plural

Nominative (-u) giefu lar -a giefa lara

Genitive -e giefe lare -a giefa lara

Dative -e giefe lare -um giefum larum

Accusative -e giefe lare -a giefa lara

Instrumental -e giefe lare -um giefum larum

Now practice combining these nouns with the articles above. Other nouns for practice include engel angel (M), beorn warrior (M), dom judgment (M); scip ship (N), hof dwelling (N), wif woman (N); faru journey (F), lufu love (F), bot remedy (F), and reord voice (F).
You will need to know the grammatical difference between strong (til Bright p. 35) and weak (goda Bright p. 42) adjectives.
Lastly, you will want to understand somewhat the phonological principles of the change of a to æ (Bright p. 22) and i-umlaut (Bright pp. 39-40).

Old English Grammar, Part 2

English verbs are of 2 types: weak (or regular) and strong (or irregular). Anomalous verbs are actually two or more verbs fused into one conjugation.

Weak verbs form their preterits with a dental suffix and have three principal parts: 1) infinitive (-an); 2) preterit 3rd person singular (-de); and 3) past participle (-d).

Example: fremman do fremede fremed

deman judge demede demed

bodian proclaim bodode bodod

Strong verbs, on the other hand, have four principal parts: 1) infinitive (-an); 2) preterit 3rd person singular (no ending, just a vowel change); 3) preterit plural (-on); 4) past participle (-en). Strong verbs form the preterit with a vowel change known as ablaut. Ablaut can be traced back to Indo-European and the gradation of tense vowels (e) versus lax vowels (o) as a meaningful device to represent present and past. In ModE the strong verbs (only about 60 are left in all) are largely fossils and their vowel gradations are confused by analogy. But in OE, as in all Gmc. languages, these ablaut grades are still fairly predictable and form a series of seven conjugations.
Memorize the following 9 verbs as characteristic of each of the 7 verb grades.
Class Infinitive Preterite 3rd Person Singular Preterite Plural Past Participle

I bidan await bad bidon biden

II beodan bid bead budon boden

The infinitive of Class II sometimes features a variant vowel u:

brucan enjoy breac brucon brocen

III bindan bind band bundon bunden

There are also three variants of Class III depending on phonological conditions (see Bright pp. 68-69).

IV beran bear bær bæron boren

V tredan tread træd trædon treden

VI faran to go for foron faren

VII hatan call het heton haten

fealdan fold feold feoldon fealden

Class VII is actually unrelated to the previous classes since its preterits are formed not merely with ablaut but also with reduplication of the first syllable of the infinitive, though this process is difficult to see in OE; cf. Gothic

Inf. haitan Pret. 3 Sing. haihait

falþan faifalþ

But in any case, the infinitive vowel of a Class VII verb will never be the same as one of Classes I-VI; note also that VII preterits are either eo or e, and that the 3 sing. and plural preterits are always the same in a given word.

As you read OE you may notice some irregularities in the consonants of some conjugations. For example:

Class I sniðan cut snað snidon sniden

Class II ceosan choose ceas curon coren

These are explained by Verner’s Law (Bright pp. 96-97), which explains the seeming irregularities in Grimm’s Law, which relates the Gmc. branch to the family of Indo-European languages as a whole.

Memorize also the endings for the indicative present and preterit conjugations.
Present Tense: Weak and Strong (singan S; fremman W)

Singular Plural (all persons)

1st -e singe fremme -að singað fremmað

2nd -st singest fremest

3rd -ð singeð fremeð

The vowel placed before these present endings will vary with the verb type.

Preterit Tense: Weak Verbs

Singular Plural (all persons)

1st -e fremede -on fremedon

2nd -est fremedest

3rd -e fremede
Preterit Tense: Strong Verbs

Singular Plural (all persons)

1st --- song -on sungon

2nd -e sunge

3rd --- song
Note that the 2nd person singular preterit of strong verbs is built on the stem of the preterit plural, not the singular as one would expect:

ðu sunge not ðu songe

Also note that occasionally a vowel before a verb ending will disappear through the process known as syncope, which often causes i-umlaut of the main vowel:

ðu berest ðu birst

ðu cumest ðu cymst