The history of English

The origin of modern English “Irregular” verbs: modern irregular verbs descending from OE strong verbs (classes I – VII), OE weak verbs (classes I – III), OE anomalous verbs.

Strong and Weak Verbs

The bulk of the verbs in PG and in the OG languages fall into two large groups called strong and weak.

The terms strong and weak were proposed by J. Grimm; he called the verbs strong because they had preserved the richness of form since the age of the parent-language and in this sense could be contrasted to weak verbs lacking such variety of form. The main difference between these groups lies in the means of building the principal forms: the Present tense, the Past tense and Participle II. The strong verbs built their principal forms with the help of root vowel interchanges plus certain grammatical endings. The weak verbs are a specifically Germanic innovation, for the device used in building their principal forms is not found outside the Germanic group. They built the Past tense and Participle II by inserting a special suffix р between the root and the ending.

Strong Verbs

There were about three hundred strong verbs in OE. Many of them had a high frequency of occurrence and were basic items of the vocabulary widely used in word derivation and word compounding. The strong verbs in OE (as well as in other OG languages) are usually divided into seven classes.

Classes from 1 to 6 use vowel gradation which goes back to the IE ablaut-series modified in different phonetic conditions in accordance with PG and Early OE sound changes. Class 7 includes reduplicating verbs, which originally built their past forms by means of repeating the root-morpheme; this doubled root gave rise to a specific kind of root-vowel interchange.

Weak Verbs

The number of weak verbs in OE by far exceeded that of strong verbs. In fact, all the verbs, with the exception of the strong verbs and the minor groups (which make a total of about 315-320 units) were weak. Their number was constantly growing since all new verbs derived from other stems were conjugated weak (except derivatives of strong verbs with prefixes). Among the weak verbs there were many derivatives of OE noun and adjective stems and also derivatives of strong verbs built from one of their stems (usually the second stem — Past sg), e.g. OE talu n, tellan v (NE tale, tell)

Weak verbs formed their Past and Participle II by means of the dental suffix -d- or -t- (a specifically Germanic trait). In OE the weak verbs are subdivided into three classes differing in the ending of the Infinitive (I - an / - ian, II – ian, III - an), the sonority of the suffix, and the sounds preceding the suffix.

Minor Groups of Verbs

Several minor groups of verbs can be referred neither to strong nor to weak verbs.

Among the verbs of the minor groups there were several anomalous verbs with irregular forms. OE willan was an irregular verb with the meaning of volition and desire; it resembled the preterite-presents in meaning and function, as it indicated an attitude to an action and was often followed by an Infinitive. Willan had a Past tense form wolde, Eventually willan became a modal verb, like the surviving preterite-presents, and, together with sculan developed into an auxiliary (NE shall, will, should, would).

Origins of Some Groups of Modern Non-Standard Verbs

As shown above, the proportion of strong and weak verbs in the language has considerably altered in the course of history The OE strong verbs, reduced by over two thirds, constitute a small group of verbs in present-day English: they belong to non-standard verbs which include nowadays many more verbs coming from various sources'. Their modern forms are so varied that the OF division into classes is inapplicable. The verbs are grouped under OE classes merely to indicate their origins.

Several groups of modern non-standard verbs have developed from the weak verbs of Class I. Nowadays they employ various form-building devices: the dental suffix, vowel and consonant interchanges

A number of verbs displayed certain irregularities as early as in OE, others acquired their peculiarities in ME

(1) Verbs like OE sellan and tж??n (CI. I e, f) had an interchange m the root caused by palatal mutation in the Present tense stem and its absence in the other stems (Past tense salde/sealde, tahte) In ME and NE they preserved the root-vowel interchange, though some of the vowels were altered due to regular quantitative and qualitative vowel changes: ME sellen - solde (OE salde>Early ME [sa:lde]>Late ME [so:ld?]> NE sold [sould]), techen — taughte; NE sell — sold teach — taught.

(2) Another group of weak verbs became irregular in Early ME as a result of quantitative vowel changes. In verbs like OE cepan, fedan metan the long vowel in the root was shortened before two consonants in the Past and Participle II; OE cepte> ME kepte ['kept?]. The long vowel in the Present tense stem was preserved and was altered during the Great Vowel Shift, hence the interchange li:~e], NE keep — kept, feed — fed.

This group of verbs attracted several verbs from other classes — NE sleep, weep, read, which formerly belonged to Class 7 of strong verbs Some verbs of this group — NE mean, feel —have a voiceless [t] in the Past tense and Participle II, though this devoicing cannot be accounted for by phonetic conditions: the preceding sound is a sonorant.

(3) Verbs like OE settan, with the root ending in a dental consonant, added the dental suffix without the intervening vowel [e] — OE sette. When the inflections were reduced and dropped, the three stems of the verbs — Present, Past and Participle II fell together: NE set — set — set; put — put — put; cast — cast — cast, etc. The final -t of the root had absorbed the dental suffix. (Wherever possible the distinctions were preserved or even introduced: thus OE sendan, restan, which had the same forms — sende, reste — for the Past and Present — appear in ME as senden — sente, resten — rested(e).)

It must be noted that although the number of non-standard verbs in Mod E is not large — about 200 items — they constitute an important feature of the language. Most of them belong to the basic layer of the vocabulary, have a high frequency of occurrence and are widely used in word-formation and phraseological units. Their significance for the grammatical system lies in the fact that many of these verbs have preserved the distinction between three principal forms, which makes modern grammarians recognize three stems in all English verbs despite the formal identity of the Past and Participle II.

A number of verbs displayed certain irregularities as early as in OE, others acquired their peculiarities in ME

(1) Verbs like OE sellan and tж??n (CI. I e, f) had an interchange m the root caused by palatal mutation in the Present tense stem and its absence in the other stems (Past tense salde/sealde, tahte) In ME and NE they preserved the root-vowel interchange, though some of the vowels were altered due to regular quantitative and qualitative vowel changes: ME sellen - solde (OE salde>Early ME [sa:lde]>Late ME [so:ld?]> NE sold [sould]), techen — taughte; NE sell — sold teach — taught.

(2) Another group of weak verbs became irregular in Early ME as a result of quantitative vowel changes. In verbs like OE cepan, fedan metan the long vowel in the root was shortened before two consonants in the Past and Participle II; OE cepte> ME kepte ['kept?]. The long vowel in the Present tense stem was preserved and was altered during the Great Vowel Shift, hence the interchange li:~e], NE keep — kept, feed — fed.

This group of verbs attracted several verbs from other classes — NE sleep, weep, read, which formerly belonged to Class 7 of strong verbs Some verbs of this group — NE mean, feel —have a voiceless [t] in the Past tense and Participle II, though this devoicing cannot be accounted for by phonetic conditions: the preceding sound is a sonorant.

(3) Verbs like OE settan, with the root ending in a dental consonant, added the dental suffix without the intervening vowel [e] — OE sette. When the inflections were reduced and dropped, the three stems of the verbs — Present, Past and Participle II fell together: NE set — set — set; put — put — put; cast — cast — cast, etc. The final -t of the root had absorbed the dental suffix. (Wherever possible the distinctions were preserved or even introduced: thus OE sendan, restan, which had the same forms — sende, reste — for the Past and Present — appear in ME as senden — sente, resten — rested(e).)

It must be noted that although the number of non-standard verbs in Mod E is not large — about 200 items — they constitute an important feature of the language. Most of them belong to the basic layer of the vocabulary, have a high frequency of occurrence and are widely used in word-formation and phraseological units. Their significance for the grammatical system lies in the fact that many of these verbs have preserved the distinction between three principal forms, which makes modern grammarians recognize three stems in all English verbs despite the formal identity of the Past and Participle II.

Vowel interchanges found in Old and Modern Germanic languages originated at different historical periods. The earliest set of vowel interchanges, which dates from PG and PIE, is called vowel gradation or ablaut. Ablaut is an independent vowel interchange unconnected with any phonetic conditions; different vowels appear in the same environment, surrounded by the same sounds.

Vowel gradation did not reflect any phonetic changes but was used as a special independent device to differentiate between words and grammatical forms built from the same root.

Ablaut was inherited by Germanic from ancient IE. The principal gradation series used in the IE languages— [e~o] — can be shown in Russian examples: ????? – ????. This kind of ablaut is called qualitative, as the vowels differ only in quality. Alternation of short and long vowels, and also alternation with a "zero" (i.e. lack of vowel) represent quantitative ablaut:

The Germanic languages employed both types of ablaut — qualitative and quantitative, — and their combinations. In accordance with vowel changes which distinguished Germanic from non-Germanic the gradation series were modified: IE [e~o] was changed to [e/i~a]; likewise, quantitative ablaut [a~a:] was reflected in Germanic as a quantitative-qualitative series [a~o:]

§ 64. Of all its spheres of application in Germanic ablaut was most consistently used in building the principal forms of the verbs called strong. Each form was characterised by a certain grade; each set of principal forms of the verb employed a gradation series. Gradation vowels were combined with other sounds in different classes of verbs and thus yielded several new gradation series

§ 65. The use of ablaut in the sphere of grammar was not confined to the root-vowels of strong verbs. The gradation series [e/i - a] accounts for the interchange of vowels in some grammatical endings in the noun and verb paradigms. This gradation series is found, e.g. in the following noun-endings: PG Norn, sg — *-az, Gen.sg -*eso/-iso

Palatal Mutation

Mutation is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding syllable. O-e (dohtor-dehter), o:-e (boc-bec), u-y (mus-mys)

In Early OE, mutations affected numerous vowels and brought about profound changes in the system and use of vowels.

§ 125. The most important series of vowel mutations, shared in varying degrees by all OE languages (except Gothic), is known as "i-Umlaut" or "palatal mutation". Palatal mutation is the fronting and raising of vowels through the influence of [i ] or [j ] (the non-syllabic [i ]) in the immediately following syllable. The vowel was fronted and made narrower so as to approach the articulation of [i].

Since the sounds [i ] and [j ] were common in suffixes and endings, palatal mutation was of very frequent occurrence. Practically all Early OE monophthongs, as well as diphthongs except the closest front vowels [e] and [i] were palatalised in these phonetic conditions.

§ 126. Of all the vowel changes described, palatal mutation was certainly the most comprehensive process, as it could affect most OE vowels, both long and short, diphthongs and monophthongs. It led to the appearance of new vowels and to numerous instances of merging and splitting of phonemes.

The labialised front vowels [y] and [y:] arose through palatal mutation from [u] and [u:], respectively, and turned into new phonemes, when the conditions that caused them had disappeared. Cf. mus and mys (from the earlier *mysi, where [y:] was an allophone of [u:] before [i]).

Palatal mutation in OE had been completed by the time of the earliest written records; it must have taken place during the 7th c, though later than all the Early OE changes described above.

The Great Vowel Shift

The Great Vowel Shift is the name given to a series of changes of long vowels between the 14th and the 18th ?. During this period all the long vowels became closer or were diphthongised. The changes can be defined as "independent", as they were not caused by any apparent phonetic conditions in the syllable or in the word, but affected regularly every stressed long vowel in any position.

The Great Vowel Shift e: - i: (kepen- keep), I: - ai (time-taim), 0: - u: (moon-moon)

As seen from the table all the vowels became closer and some of the vowels occupied the place of the next vowel in the column: thus [e:]> [i:], while the more open [?:] took the place of [e:], and later moved one step further in the same direction and merged with the former [e: ] in [i:]. Likewise, the long [o:] was shifted one step, to become [u:l, while ME [u:] changed to [au]. Some long vowels— [u:], [i:] and [a:] —broke into diphthongs, the first element being contrasted to the second as a more open sound: [au], [ai] and [ei], respectively.

§ 386. It is important to note that the Great Vowel Shift (unlike most of the earlier phonetic changes) was not followed by any regular spelling changes: as seen from the examples the modification in the pronunciation of words was not reflected in their written forms. (The few graphic replacements made in the 16th failed to reflect the changes: the digraphs ie, ee and the single e were kept for the close [e:], while the digraph ea was introduced to show the more open [?: ] as in steal; the further merging of [e:] and [?: ] in [i:] made the graphic distinction unnecessary — cf. NE steal, steel. A similar distinction between the close [o:], shown as oo, and the more open [o:], shown as oa since the 16th proved to be more useful, as these digraphs indicate different sounds (although the gap between the spelling and the pronunciation is greater than it was: oo stands for [u:] while oa stands for [ou], cf. NE room, roam.)

During the shift even the names of some English letters were changed, for they contained long vowels. Cf. the names of some English letters before and after the shift:

ME: A [a:], E [e:], O [o:], I [i:], B [be:], K [ka:]

NE: A [ei], E [i:], 0 [ou], I [ai], B [bi:], K [kei].