2.2. Weak verbs

As we have said above the number of strong verbs was diminishing in Middle English and New English mainly due to the passing of some strong verbs into the weak conjugation. Weak verbs, however, were becoming more and more numerous, as they not only preserved in Middle and New English almost all the verbs that were typical of the group in Old English, but also added to their group the majority of borrowed verbs and about seventy originally strong, and also such verbs as:

to call

to want Scandinavian borrowings

to guess

to pierce

to punish French borrowings

to finish

to contribute

to create Latin borrowings

to distribute

Alike strong verbs many weak verbs became irregular in the course of history, especially weak verbs of the first class. This irregularity was mainly conditioned by qualitative and quantitative changes that many weak verbs underwent in Middle and new English. For example:

Old English cēpan – cēpte – cēpte – cēpt

Middle English kēpen – kepte – kept

New English keep – kept – kept

As we see the Old English weak verb of the first class became irregular due to the quantitative change – shortening of the vowel in the second and third forms in Middle English (before two consonants – for example, pt), thus acquiring quantitative vowel interchange. This quantitative interchange was followed by qualitative in New English after the Great Vowel Shift, which only the vowel of the first form, being long underwent, the short vowel of the second and third forms retaining their quality.

2.2.1. Classes of the weak verbs

In Old English there were two principal classes of the weak verbs. In Middle English some verbs that did not become irregular lost the class difference and we have but one class of verbs going back mainly to the weak verbs of the second class.

For instance:

Old English II class lufian – lufode – lufod (to love)

Middle English loven – lovede – luved

2.2.2. Principal forms of the weak verbs

In Old English there were three principal forms of the weak verbs, for instance:

cēpan – cēpte – cēpt (to keep)

lufian – lufode – lufod (to love)

In Late Middle English – Early New English, with the loss of the final -e in the second form the second and the third form became homonymous, thus we speak of three principal forms of such verbs as to love or to keep mainly on analogy with original strong verbs, and also because of the existing tradition as no Modern English regular verb, originally belonging to the weak conjugation, shows any trace of difference between the second and the third forms.

Thus in New English due to different phonetic process and changes on analogy the two principal groups of verbs that existed in Old English, strong and weak, gave us two principal groups of Modern verbs: regular and irregular, neither of which is directly derived from either of the Old English groups of strong and weak verbs.