- •Contents
- •List of abbreviations
- •Preface
- •Introduction
- •Germanic languages
- •Classification of germanic languages
- •Ancient germanic tribes and their classification
- •Germanic alphabets
- •Some phonetic peculiarities of germanic languages
- •Consonants
- •The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)
- •Ііі. Act The ie aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.G.
- •Verner`s Law
- •Word – Stress
- •Stressed vowels
- •Germanic Fracture (Breaking)
- •Gradation or Ablaut
- •Unstressed Vowels
- •Grammatical peculiarities of germanic languages
- •The Noun
- •The Adjective
- •The Verb
- •Gothic Strong Verbs
- •Vocabulary
- •Old english
- •2.1. Periods in the History of English
- •2.2. Historical Background
- •2.2.1. The Roman Conquest of Britain
- •2.2.2. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
- •2.3. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- •Old English Alphabet
- •2.4. Old English Dialects and Written Records
- •2.5. Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period
- •2.5.1. Vowels
- •2.5.2. Old English Breaking
- •2.5.3. Palatal Mutation (I-mutation)
- •Monophthongs
- •Diphthongs
- •2.5.4. Back or Velar Mutation (Velarization)
- •2.5.5. Diphthongization of Vowels after Palatal Consonants
- •2.5.6. Lengthening of Short Vowels
- •2.5.7. Unstressed Vowels
- •2.5.8. Consonants
- •2.5.9. Palatalization of Velar Consonants
- •2.5.10. Assimilation, Metathesis, Doubling of Consonants, Loss of Consonants
- •2.6. Old English Morphology
- •2.6.1. Old English Noun: General Characteristics
- •Vowel Stems
- •Consonant Stems
- •2.6.2. Vowel Stems Strong Declension
- •2.6.3. Consonant Stems: Weak Declension, Minor Declensions
- •2.6.4. Root-Stems
- •2.6.5. Pronouns
- •2.6.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •2.6.5.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun þes
- •2.6.6. Adjectives
- •2.6.6.1. Strong Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.2. Weak Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.3. Degrees of Comparison
- •2.6.7. Adverbs
- •2.6.7.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •2.6.7.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •2.6.8. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of verbs
- •2.6.8.1. Strong Verbs
- •2.6.8.2. Weak Verbs
- •Conjugation of Weak Verbs
- •2.6.8.3. Preterite-Present Verbs
- •Conjugation of Preterite - Present verbs
- •2.6.8.4. Anomalous verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb dōn
- •Indicative mood
- •2.6.8.5. Suppletive Verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon
- •Indicative mood
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān
- •Indicative mood
- •2.7. Old English Syntax
- •2.8. The Old English Vocabulary
- •2.8.1. Word-Building
- •Suffixation
- •Prefixation
- •Composition
- •2.8.2. Borrowings
- •Latin borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Middle english
- •3.1. Historical Background
- •3.1.1. Scandinavian Invasions
- •3.1.2. The Norman Conquest
- •3.2. Middle English Dialects Rise of the London Dialect
- •3.3. Early Middle English Written Records
- •3.4. Word Stress
- •3.5. Vowels
- •3.5.1. Unstressed Vowels
- •3.5.2. Stressed vowels
- •3.5.2.1. Quantitative Vowel Changes
- •3.5.2.2. Qualitative Vowel Changes
- •Monophthongs
- •3.5.2.3. Monophthongization of Old English Diphthongs
- •3.5.2.4. Rise of New Diphthongs
- •3.6. Evolution of Consonants in Middle English
- •3.7. Spelling Changes in Middle English
- •3.7.1. Changes in the Designation of Vowels
- •3.7.2. Changes in the designation of Consonants
- •3.8. Changes in the Grammatical System
- •3.8.1. Preliminary Remarks
- •3.8.2. The Noun
- •3.8.2.1. Gender
- •3.8.2.2. Number
- •3.8.2.3. Decay of Noun Declensions
- •3.8.3. The Adjective
- •3.8.3.1. Declension of Adjectives in Late Middle English
- •3.8.3.2. Degrees of Comparison
- •3.8.4. Adverbs
- •3.8.4.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •3.8.4.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •3.8.5. The Pronoun
- •3.8.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •3.8.5.2. Possessive pronouns
- •3.8.5.3. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •3.8.5.4. Rise of the Articles
- •3.8.6. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of Verbs
- •Conjugation of Verbs Past Indicative
- •3.8.5.1. Changes in the Morphological Classes of Verbs in Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.1. Strong Verbs
- •3.8.6.2. Weak Verbs
- •3.8.6.3. Preterite-present Verbs
- •3.8.6.4. Suppletive verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.5. Rise of Analytical Forms
- •Future Forms
- •Perfect Forms
- •Passive Forms
- •Continuous Forms
- •3.8.7. Development of the Syntactic System
- •3.9. Middle English Vocabulary Changes
- •3.9.1. Native Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.2. French Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.3. Scandinavian Borrowings
- •3.9.4. French Borrowings
- •New english
- •4.1. The formation of the English National Language
- •4.2. Changes in Pronunciation
- •4.2.1. Development of Unstressed Vowels
- •4.2.1.1. Loss of unstressed –e [ə]
- •4.2.1.2. Loss of Vowels in Intermediate Syllables
- •4.2.2. Stressed Vowels
- •4.2.2.1. The Great Vowel Shift
- •4.2.2.2. Shortening of Long Vowels
- •4.2.2.3. Development of Short Vowels
- •4.2.2.4. The Development of the New Short [л]
- •4.2.2.5. Changes in Diphthongs
- •4.2.2.6. Vowel Changes under the Influence of Consonants
- •4.2.3. Consonants
- •4.2.3.1. Voicing of Voiceless Consonants
- •4.2.3.2. Loss of Consonants Development of [X]
- •Simplification of Consonant Clusters
- •4.2.3.3. Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r]
- •4.2.3.4. Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early New English
- •4.3. Changes in Spelling
- •4.4. Local Dialects in New English
- •4.4.1. Scottish Dialect
- •4.4.2. Northern Dialects
- •4.4.3. Western, Central and Southern Dialects
- •4.5. Some Essential Grammatical Changes of the New English Period: Morphology
- •4.5.1. The Noun
- •4.5.1.1. Number
- •4.5.1.2. Cases
- •4.5.2. The Pronoun
- •4.5.2.1. Personal Pronouns
- •4.5.2.2. Possessive Pronouns
- •4.5.3. The Adjective
- •4.5.4. The Adverb
- •4.5.5. The Verb
- •4.5.5.1. Personal Endings
- •4.5.5.2. Changes in Strong Verbs
- •4.5.5.3. Changes in Weak Verbs
- •4.5.5.4. Rise of Invariable Verbs
- •4.5.5.5. Changes in Preterite-Present Verbs
- •4.5.5.6. Irregular Verbs
- •4.6. New English Syntax
- •4.7. New English Vocabulary Changes
- •4.7.1. Latin Loanwords
- •4.7.2. Latinization of French Loanwords
- •4.7.3. Greek loanwords
- •4.7.4. French Loanwords
- •4.7.5. Mixed vocabulary of New English
- •4.7.6. Italian and Spanish Loanwords
- •4.7.7. Russian Loanwords
- •4.8. The Expansion of English
- •4.9. The English Language in the usa
- •4.9.1. Some peculiarities of American Pronunciation
- •4.9.2. American Spelling
- •4.9.3. Some peculiarities of American Grammar
- •4.9.4. Vocabulary of American English
- •Conclusion
- •Bibliography
2.6.5.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: the prototypes of this and that. They distinguished five cases (instrumental, the fifth, had a special form only in the masculine and neuter singular), two numbers, three genders and had only one form for all genders in the plural: sē (тот), sēo (та), þæt (то), þā (те); þes (этот), þēos (эта), þis (это), þās (эти).
Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun sē
|
Sg number |
Pl number |
||
Case |
Masculine gender |
Neuter gender |
Feminine gender |
All three genders |
Nom. |
sē |
þæt |
sēo |
þā |
Gen. |
þæs |
þæs |
þǣre |
þāra ( þǣra) |
Dat. |
þǣm |
þǣm |
þǣre |
þām (þǣm) |
Acc. |
þone |
þæt |
þā |
þā |
Instr. |
þӯ (þon) |
þӯ (þon) |
– |
– |
Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun þes
|
Sg number |
Pl number |
||
Case |
Masculine gender |
Neuter gender |
Feminine gender |
All the three genders |
Nom. |
þes |
þis |
þēos, (þīos) |
þās |
Gen. |
þisses |
þisses |
þisse |
þissa |
Dat. |
þissum (þeossum) |
þissum (þeossum) |
þisse |
þissum (þeossum) |
Acc. |
þisne (þysne) |
þis |
þās |
þās |
Instr. |
þis (þys) |
þis (þys) |
– |
– |
Note. Forms with the diphthong -eo- are due to back mutation.
The meaning of the pronoun sē often weakened, it approached the definite article: sē mann (the man), sēo sǣ (the sea), þæt lond (the land). This was usually accompanied by the loss of stress and by the change of the form itself sē>se: se cyninʒ «the king» (the example is from The Voyage of Wulfstan)
2.6.6. Adjectives
OE adjectives possessed the categories of number (singular and plural), gender (masculine, feminine and neuter), case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and, partly, instrumental) and degrees of comparison (positive, comparative and superlative).
As in other Gc languages most adjectives in OE could be declined in two ways: according to the weak and to the strong declension. The adjective had a strong form when used predicatively and when used attributively without any determiner. The weak form was used when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the genitive case of personal pronouns.
Endings of the strong declension coincided with the endings of a-stems of nouns for adjectives in the masculine and neuter and of ō-stems in the feminine. Some endings in the strong declension of adjectives are similar to the endings of pronouns: -um for dative singular, -ne for accusative singular masculine, -r in some feminine singular and plural endings. Therefore, sometimes, the strong declension of adjectives is called pronominal. Strong forms were associated with the meaning of indefiniteness, weak forms – with the meaning of definiteness.
A few adjectives were always declined as strong: eall (all), maniʒ (many), ōþer (other). Several others were always weak: adjectives in the comparative and superlative degrees, ordinal numerals, the adjective ilca (the same).
As for the weak declension, adjectives were declined like n-stems nouns, except that in the genitive plural the pronominal ending -ra is often used instead of the weak -ena. Sometimes the weak declension of adjectives is called nominal.