Old English morphology

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The morphology of the Old English language is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected. As an old Germanic language, Old English's morphological system is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections theorized to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including characteristically Germanic constructions such as umlaut.

Among living languages, Old English morphology most closely resembles that of modern Icelandic, which is among the most conservative of the Germanic languages; to a lesser extent, the Old English inflectional system is similar to that of modern High German.

Contents [hide] 1 Verbs 1.1 Strong verbs 1.2 Weak verbs 1.3 Preterite-present verbs 1.4 Anomalous verbs 2 Nouns 3 Pronouns 4 Prepositions 5 References 6 See also

[edit] Verbs

Verbs in Old English are divided into strong or weak verbs. Strong verbs indicate tense by a change in the quality of a vowel, while weak verbs indicate tense by the addition of an ending.

[edit] Strong verbs

Further information: Germanic strong verb

Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation known as ablaut. In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense. Verbs like this persist in modern English, for example sing, sang, sung is a strong verb, as are swim, swam, swum and choose, chose, chosen. The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes. Learning these is often a challenge for students of the language, though English speakers may see connections between the old verb classes and their modern forms.

The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:

1. ī + 1 consonant.

2. ēo or ū + 1 consonant.

3. Originally e + 2 consonants (This was no longer the case by the time of written Old English).

4. e + 1 consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb brecan 'to break').

5. e + 1 consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).

6. a + 1 consonant.

7. No specific rule — first and second have identical stems (ē or ēo), and the infinitive and the past participle also have the same stem.

Stem Changes in Strong Verbs
Class	Infinitive	First Preterite	Second Preterite	Past Participle
I	ī	ā	i	i
II	ēo or ū	ēa	u	o
III	see table below
IV	e	æ	ǣ	o
V	e	æ	ǣ	e
VI	a	ō	ō	a
VII	—	ē or ēo	ē or ēo	—

The first preterite stem is used in the preterite tense, for the first and third persons singular. The second preterite stem is used for second person singular, and all persons in the plural (as well as the preterite subjunctive). Strong verbs also exhibit i-mutation of the stem in the second and third persons singular in the present tense.

The third class went through so many sound changes that it was barely recognisable as a single class. The first was a process called 'breaking'. Before <h>, and <r> + another consonant, <æ> turned into <ea>, and <e> to <eo>. Also, before <l> + another consonant, the same happened to <æ>, but <e> remained unchanged (except before combination <lh>).

The second sound-change to affect it was the influence of palatal sounds <g>, <c>, and <sc>. These turned anteceding <e> and <æ> to <ie> and <ea>, respectively.

The third sound change turned <e> to <i>, <æ> to <a>, and <o> to <u> before nasals.

Altogether, this split the third class into five sub-classes:

1. e + two consonants (apart from clusters beginning with l).

2. eo + r or h + another consonant.

3. e + l + another consonant.

4. g, c, or sc + ie + two consonants.

5. i + nasal + another consonant.

Stem Changes in Class III
Sub-class	Infinitive	First Preterite	Second Preterite	Past Participle
a	e	æ	u	o
b	eo	ea	u	o
c	e	ea	u	o
d	ie	ea	u	o
e	i	a	u	u

Regular strong verbs were all conjugated roughly the same, with the main differences being in the stem vowel. Thus stelan 'to steal' represents the strong verb conjugation paradigm.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'steal'
Infinitives		stelan
		tō stelanne
Present Indicative
	ic	stele
	þū	stilst
	hē/hit/hēo	stilð
	wē/gē/hīe	stelaþ
Past Indicative	ic	stæl
	þū	stæle
	hē/hit/hēo	stæl
	wē/gē/hīe	stælon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	stele
	wē/gē/hīe	stelen
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	stǣle
	wē/gē/hīe	stǣlen
Imperative	Singular	stel
	Plural	stelaþ
Present Participle		stelende
Past Participle		stolen

[edit] Weak verbs

Further information: Germanic weak verb

Weak verbs are formed by adding alveolar (t or d) endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are love, loved or look, looked.

Originally, the weak ending was used to form the preterite of informal, noun-derived verbs such as often emerge in conversation and which have no established system of stem-change. By nature, these verbs were almost always transitive, and even today, most weak verbs are transitive verbs formed in the same way. However, as English came into contact with non-Germanic languages, it invariably borrowed useful verbs which lacked established stem-change patterns. Rather than invent and standardize new classes or learn foreign conjugations, English speakers simply applied the weak ending to the foreign bases.

The linguistic trends of borrowing foreign verbs and verbalizing nouns have greatly increased the number of weak verbs over the last 1,200 years. Some verbs that were originally strong (for example help, holp, holpen) have become weak by analogy; most foreign verbs are adopted as weak verbs; and when verbs are made from nouns (for example "to scroll" or "to water") the resulting verb is weak. Additionally, conjugation of weak verbs is easier to teach, since there are fewer classes of variation. In combination, these factors have drastically increased the number of weak verbs, so that in modern English weak verbs are the most numerous and productive form (although occasionally a weak verb may turn into a strong verb through the process of analogy, such as sneak (originally only a noun), where snuck is an analogical formation rather than a survival from Old English).

There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-mutation in the root, and the second class none. There is also a third class explained below.

Class-one verbs with short roots exhibit gemination of the final stem consonant in certain forms. With verbs in <r> this appears as <ri> or <rg>, where <i> and <g> are pronounced [j]. Geminated <f> appears as <bb>, and that of <g> appears as <cg>. Class one verbs may receive an epenthetic vowel before endings beginning in a consonant.

Where class-one verbs have gemination, class-two verbs have <i> or <ig>, which is a separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as <a> or <o>.

In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. Swebban 'to put to sleep' is a class one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. Hǣlan 'to heal' is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Sīðian 'to journey' is a class-two verb.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'put to sleep'		'heal'		'journey'
Infinitives			swebban		hǣlan	sīðian
			tō swebbanne		tō hǣlanne	tō sīðianne
Present Indicative
	ic	swebbe		hǣle		sīðie
	þū	swefest		hǣlst		sīðast
	hē/hit/hēo	swefeþ		hǣlþ		sīðað
	wē/gē/hīe	swebbaþ		hǣlaþ		sīðiað
Past Indicative	ic	swefede		hǣlde		sīðode
	þū	swefedest		hǣldest		sīðodest
	hē/hit/hēo	swefede		hǣle		sīðode
	wē/gē/hīe	swefedon		hǣlon		sīðodon
Present Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swebbe		hǣle		sīðie
	wē/gē/hīe	swebben		hǣlen		sīðien
Past Subjunctive	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	swefede		hǣlde		sīðode
	wē/gē/hīe	swefeden		hǣlden		sīðoden
Imperative	Singular	swefe		hǣl		sīða
	Plural	swebbaþ		hǣlaþ		sīðiað
Present Participle			swefende		hǣlende	sīðiende
Past Participle			swefed		hǣled	sīðod

During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only four verbs belonged to this group: habban 'have', libban 'live', secgan 'say', and hycgan 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some commonalities.

Conjugation	Pronoun	'have'	'live'	'say'	'think'
Infinitive		habban	libban, lifgan	secgan	hycgan
Present Indicative
	ic	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
	þū	hæfst, hafast	lifast, leofast	segst, sagast	hygst, hogast
	hē/hit/hēo	hæfð, hafað	lifað, leofað	segð, sagað	hyg(e)d, hogað
	wē/gē/hīe	habbaþ	libbað	secgaþ	hycgað
Past Indicative	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Present Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæbbe	libbe, lifge	secge	hycge
Past Subjunctive	(all persons)	hæfde	lifde, leofode	sægde	hog(o)de, hygde
Imperative	Singular	hafa	leofa	sæge, saga	hyge, hoga
	Plural	habbaþ	libbaþ, lifgaþ	secgaþ	hycgaþ
Present Participle		hæbbende	libbende, lifgende	secgende	hycgende
Past Participle		gehæfd	gelifd	gesægd	gehogod

[edit] Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which have a present tense in the form of a strong preterite and a past tense like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from the subjunctive or optative use of preterite forms to refer to present or future time. For example, witan, "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to have seen" (cf. OE wise "manner, mode, appearance"; Latin videre "to see" from the same root). The present singular is formed from the original singular preterite stem and the present plural from the original plural preterite stem. As a result of this history, the first-person singular and third-person singular are the same in the present.

Few preterite present appear in the Old English corpus, and some are not attested in all forms.

Conjugation

Pronoun

'know, know how to, can'

'be able to, may'

'be obliged to, shall'

'know, wit'

'own, owe'

'avail, dow'

'dare'

'remember'

'need'

'be able to, be obliged to, mote

Infinitives

cunnan

magan

sculan

witan

āgan

dugan

durran

munan

mōtan

Present Indicative

ic

cann

mæg

sceal

wāt

āh

deah

dearr

man

þearf

mōt

þū

canst

meaht

scealt

wāst

āhst

dearst

manst

þearft

mōst

hē/hit/hēo

cann

mæg

sceal

wāt

āh

deah

dearr

man

þearf

mōt

wē/gē/hīe

cunnon

magon

sculon

witon

āgon

dugon

durron

munon

þurfon

mōton

Past Indicative

ic

cūðe

meahte

sceolde

wisse, wiste

āhte

dohte

dorst

munde

þorfte

mōste

þū

cūðest

meahtest

sceoldest

wissest, wistest

āhte

dohte

dorst

munde

þorfte

mōste

hē/hit/hēo

cūðe

meahte

sceolde

wisse, wiste

āhte

dohte

dorst

munde

þorfte

mōste

wē/gē/hīe

cūðon

meahton

sceoldon

wisson, wiston

Present Subjunctive

ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo

cunne

mæge

scule

wite

āge

dyge, duge

durre

myne, mune

þyrfe, þurfe

mōte

wē/gē/hīe

cunnen

mægen

sculen

witaþ

Past Subjunctive

ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo

cūðe

meahte

sceolde

wisse, wiste

wē/gē/hīe

cūðen

meahten

sceolden

[edit] Anomalous verbs

Additionally there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous, the verbs "will", "do", "go" and "be". These four have their own conjugation schemes which differ significantly from all the other classes of verb. This is not especially unusual: "will", "do", "go", and "be" are the most commonly used verbs in the language, and are very important to the meaning of the sentences in which they are used. Idiosyncratic patterns of inflection are much more common with important items of vocabulary than with rarely-used ones.

Dōn 'to do', gān 'to go', and willan 'will' are conjugated alike:

Conjugation	Pronoun	'do'	'go'	'will'
Infinitive	–	dōn	gān	willan
Present Indicative
	ic	dō	gā	wille
	þū	dēst	gǣst	wilt
	hē/hit/hēo	dēð	gǣð	wile
	wē/gē/hīe	dōð	gāð	willað
Past Indicative
	ic/hē/hit/hēo	dyde	ēode	wolde
	þū	dydest	ēodest	woldest
	wē/gē/hīe	dydon	ēodon	woldon
Present Subjunctive	(all persons)	dō	gā	wille
Past Subjunctive	(all persons)	dyde	ēode	wolde
Present Participle		dōnde	–	willende
Past Participle		gedōn	gegān	–

The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems:

Conjugation	Pronoun	sindon	bēon	wesan
Infinitive	–	sindon	bēon	wesan
Present Indicative
	ic	eom	bēo	wese
	þū	eart	bist	wesst
	hē/hit/hēo	is	bið	wes(t)
	wē/gē/hīe	sind(on)	bēoð	wesað
Past Indicative
	ic	–	–	wæs
	þū	–	–	wǣre
	hē/hit/hēo	–	–	wæs
	wē/gē/hīe	–	–	wǣron
Present Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	sīe	bēo	wese
	wē/gē/hīe	sīen	bēon	wesen
Past Subjunctive
	ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo	–	–	wǣre
	wē/gē/hīe	–	–	wǣren
Imperative
	(singular)	–	bēo	wes
	(plural)	–	bēoð	wesað
Present Participle		–	bēonde	wesende
Past Participle		–	gebēon	–

The present forms of wesan are almost never used. Therefore, wesan is used as the past, imperative, and present participle versions of sindon, and does not have a separate meaning. The bēon forms are usually used in reference to future actions. Only the present forms of bēon contrast with the present forms of sindon/wesan in that bēon tends to be used to refer to eternal or permanent truths, while sindon/wesan is used more commonly to refer to temporary or subjective facts. This semantic distinction was lost as Old English developed into modern English, so that the modern verb 'to be' is a single verb which takes its present indicative forms from sindon, its past indicative forms from wesan, its present subjunctive forms from bēon, its past subjunctive forms from wesan, and its imperative and participle forms from bēon.

[edit] Nouns

Main article: Old English declension

Old English nouns were declined – that is, the ending of the noun changed to reflect its function in the sentence. There were five major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental.

• The nominative case indicated the subject of the sentence, for example se cyning means 'the king'. It was also used for direct address. Adjectives in the predicate (qualifying a noun on the other side of 'to be') were also in the nominative.

• The accusative indicated the direct object of the sentence, for example Æþelbald lufode þone cyning means "Æþelbald loved the king", where Æþelbald is the subject and the king is the object. Already the accusative had begun to merge with the nominative; it was never distinguished in the plural, or in a neuter noun.

• The genitive case indicated possession, for example the þæs cyninges scip is "the ship of the king" or "the king's ship". It also indicated partitive nouns.

• The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence, for example hringas þæm cyninge means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king". There were also several verbs which took direct objects in the dative.

• The instrumental case indicated an instrument used to achieve something, for example lifde sweorde, "he lived by the sword", where sweorde is the instrumental form of sweord. During the Old English period, the instrumental was falling out of use, having largely merged with the dative. Only pronouns and strong adjectives retained separate forms for the instrumental.

There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, hring 'one ring') or plural (for example, hringas 'many rings').

Nouns are also categorised by grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. Masculine and neuter words generally share their endings. Feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural does not distinguish between genders.

Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. However, there is a great deal of overlap between the various classes of noun: they are not totally distinct from one another.

[edit] Pronouns

Main article: Old English pronouns

Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form most pronouns have only one form for all genders. Additionally, Old English pronouns reserve the dual form (which is specifically for talking about groups of two things, for example "we two" or "you two" or "they two"). These were uncommon even then, but remained in use throughout the period.

First Person
Case	Singular	Plural	Dual
Nominative	ic, īc	wē	wit
Accusative	mec, mē	ūsic, ūs	uncit, unc
Genitive	mīn	ūre	uncer
Dative	mē	ūs	unc

Second Person
Case	Singular	Plural	Dual
Nominative	þū	gē	git
Accusative	þēc, þē	ēowic, ēow	incit, inc
Genitive	þīn	ēower	incer
Dative	þē	ēow	inc

Third Person
Case	Singular			Plural
	Masc.	Neut.	Fem.
Nominative	hē	hit	hēo	hiē m., hēo f.
Accusative	hine	hit	hīe	hiē m., hīo f.
Genitive	his	his	hire	hiera m., heora f.
Dative	him	him	hire	him

Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ēower became "your", ūre became "our", mīn became "mine".

[edit] Prepositions

Further information: Old English language (list of prepositions)

Prepositions (like Modern English words by, for, and with) often follow the word which they govern, in which case they are called postpositions. Also, so that the object of a preposition was marked in the dative case, a preposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence, even appended to the verb. e.g. "Scyld Scefing sceathena threatum meodo setla of teoh" means "Scyld took mead settles of (from) enemy threats." The infinitive is not declined.

Old English phonology

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The phonology of Old English is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved purely as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of Old English, and the written language apparently indicates phonological alternations quite faithfully, so it is not difficult to draw certain conclusions about the nature of Old English phonology.

Contents [hide] 1 Sound inventory 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Consonant allophones 1.3 Vowels 2 The distribution of velars and palatals 3 Phonological processes 3.1 A-restoration 3.2 Breaking 3.3 h-loss 3.4 i-mutation 4 Vowels after palatals 5 Vowel changes: an overview 6 Prosody 7 References

[edit] Sound inventory

The inventory of surface sounds (whether allophones or phonemes) of Old English is as shown below.

[edit] Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p  b			t  d			k  ɡ
Affricate					tʃ  (dʒ)
Nasal	m			n			(ŋ)
Fricative		f  (v)	θ  (ð)	s  (z)	ʃ	(ç)	(x)  (ɣ)	h
Approximant				r^[1]		j	w
Lateral approximant				l

1. ^  The exact nature of Old English r is not known. It may have been an alveolar approximant [ɹ], as in most Modern English accents, an alveolar flap [ɾ], or an alveolar trill [r]. In this article we will use the symbol /r/ indiscriminately to stand for this phoneme.

[edit] Consonant allophones

The sounds marked in parentheses in the table above are allophones:

• [dʒ] is an allophone of /j/ occurring after /n/ and when geminated

  • For example, senġan "to singe" is [sendʒɑn] < /senjɑn/ < *sangjan

  • and bryċġ "bridge" is [bryddʒ] < /bryjj/ < *bruggjō < *bruɣjō

• [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ occurring before /k/ and /ɡ/

  • For example, hring "ring" is [hriŋɡ]; [ŋ] did not occur alone word-finally in Old English as it does in Modern English.

• [v, ð, z] are allophones of /f, θ, s/ respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced consonants.

  • For example, stafas "letters" is [stɑvɑs] < /stɑfɑs/, smiþas "blacksmiths" is [smiðɑs] < /smiθɑs/, and hūses "house (genitive)" is [huːzes] < /huːses/.

• [ç, x] are allophones of /h/ occurring in coda position after front and back vowels respectively. The evidence for this is indirect, as it is not indicated in the orthography. Nevertheless, the fact that there was historically a fronting of *k to /tʃ/ and of *ɣ to /j/ after front vowels makes it very likely. Moreover, in late Middle English, /x/ sometimes became /f/ (e.g. tough, cough), but only after back vowels, never after front vowels. This is explained if we assume that the allophone [x] sometimes became [f] but the allophone [ç] never did.

  • For example, cniht "boy" is [kniçt], while ġeþōht "thought" is [jeˈθoːxt]

• The sequences /hw hl hn hr/ were realized as [w̥ l̥ n̥ r̥].

• [ɣ] is an allophone of /ɡ/ occurring after a vowel or liquid. Historically, [ɣ] is older, and originally appeared in word-initial position as well; for Proto-West Germanic (PWG) and probably the earliest Old English it makes more sense to say that [ɡ] is an allophone of /ɣ/ after a nasal. But after [ɣ] became [ɡ] word-initially, it makes more sense to treat the stop as the basic form and the fricative as the allophonic variant.

  • For example, dagas "days" is [dɑɣɑs] and burgum "castles (dative)" is [burɣum]

[edit] Vowels

Monophthongs	Short			Long
	Front	Back	Front		Back
Close	i  y	u	iː  yː		uː
Mid	e  (ø)	o	eː  (øː)		oː
Open	æ	ɑ	æː		ɑː

The front mid rounded vowels /ø(ː)/ occur in some dialects of Old English, but not in the best attested Late West Saxon dialect. There is also historical evidence suggesting that short /e/ and /o/ were phonetically lower and/or more centralized (perhaps /ɛ/ and /ɔ/) than the corresponding long ones.

Diphthongs	Short (monomoraic)	Long (bimoraic)
First element is close	iy^[2]	iːy
Both elements are mid	eo	eːo
Both elements are open	æɑ	æːɑ

2. ^  It is uncertain whether the diphthongs spelt ie/īe were pronounced [i(ː)y] or [i(ː)e]. The fact that this diphthong was merged with /y(ː)/ in many dialects suggests the former.

[edit] The distribution of velars and palatals

The pairs /k/~/tʃ/ and /ɡ/~/j/ are almost certainly distinct phonemes synchronically in Late West Saxon, the dialect in which the majority of Old English documents are written. This is shown by such near-minimal pairs as:

• drincan [driŋkɑn] "to drink" vs. drenċan [drentʃɑn] "to drench"

• gēs [ɡeːs] "geese" vs. ġē [jeː] "you"

Nevertheless there are very few environments in which both the velars and the palatals can occur; in most environments only one or the other set occurs. Also, the two sets alternate with each other in ways reminiscent of allophones, for example:

• ċēosan [tʃeːozan] "to choose" vs. curon [kuron] "chose (pl.)"

• ġēotan [jeːotan] "to pour" vs. guton [ɡuton] "poured (pl.)"

(In the standardized orthography used on this page, c stands for /k/, ċ for /tʃ/, g for /ɡ/ and [ɣ], and ġ for /j/ and [dʒ]. The geminates of these are spelled cc, ċċ, cg, ċġ.)

The best way to explain the distribution of c~ċ and g~ġ is through historical linguistics. The PWG ancestor of both c and ċ is *k; the ancestor of both g and ġ is *ɣ. Palatalization of *k to ċ and of *ɣ to ġ happened in the following environments:

• before PWG nonlow front vowels (*i, *ī, *e, *ē, *eu) as well as PWG *j

  • Examples: ġifþ "(he) gives" < *ɣifiþi, ċīdan "to chide" < *kīdan, ċeorl "churl" < *kerlaz, ġēotan "pour" < *ɣeutan; non-initially bēċ "books" < *bōkīz, sēċan "seek" < *sōkjan, bryċġ "bridge" < *bruɣjō

• before OE /æ, æː/ < PWG *a, ā (but not before OE /ɑ, ɑː/ < PWG *a, ǣ by a-restoration)

  • Examples: ġeaf /jæf/ "gave" < *ɣaf, ċēace /tʃæːke/ "cheek" < *kāk-

• before OE /æːɑ/ < PWG *au

  • Examples: ċēas "chose (sg.)" < *kaus, ġēat "poured (sg.)" < *ɣaut

• before OE /æɑ/ < PWG *a by breaking

  • Examples: ċeald "cold" < *kaldaz, ġeard "yard" < *ɣardaz

• after OE /i, iː/, unless a back vowel followed

  • Examples: iċ "I" < PWG *ik, dīċ "ditch, dike" < PWG *dīk- (but wicu "weak")

• after OE /e, eː/ and /æ, æː/ (*ɣ only!), unless a back vowel followed

  • Examples: weġ "way" < PWG *weɣaz, næġl "nail" < PWG *naɣlaz, mǣġ "relative" < PWG *māɣaz (but wegas "ways")

The velars remained velar, however, before back vowels that underwent i-mutation (umlaut):

• cyning "king" < *kuningaz

• gēs "geese" < *ɣōsīz

• cemban "to comb" < *kambjan

• macian "to make" < *makōjan

Palatalization was undone before consonants in OE:

• sēcþ "he seeks" < *sēċþ < *sōkjiþi

• sengþ "he singes" < *senġþ < *sangjiþi

The palatalization of PWG *sk to OE /ʃ/ (spelt sċ) is much less restricted: word-initially it is found before back vowels and r as well as in the environments where ċ and ġ are found.

• sċuldor "shoulder" < *skuldr-

• sċort "short" < *skort-

• sċrūd "dress" < *skrūd-

Non-initially palatalization to sċ is found before PWG front vowels and j, and after front vowels in OE, but not before an OE back vowel

• fisċ "fish" < *fiskaz

• āscian "ask" < *aiskōjan

In addition to /j/ from the palatalization of PWG *ɣ, Old English also has /j/ from PWG *j, which could stand before back vowels:

• ġeong /junɡ/ "young" < PWG *jungaz

• ġeoc /jok/ "yoke" < PWG *jokan

Many instances where a ċ/c, ġ/g, or sċ/sc alternation would be expected within a paradigm, it was levelled out by analogy at some point in the history of the language. For example, the velar of sēcþ "he seeks" has replaced the palatal of sēċan "to seek" in Modern English; on the other hand, the palatalised forms of besēċan have replaced the velar forms, to create "beseech".

[edit] Phonological processes

[edit] A-restoration

The Anglo-Frisian languages underwent a sound change in their development from Proto-West Germanic by which the vowels *a, ā were fronted to /æ, æː/ unless followed by a nasal consonant, a process known in the literature as Anglo-Frisian brightening.

Later in Old English, short /æ/ (and in some dialects long /æː/ as well), was backed to /ɑ/ when there was a back vowel in the following syllable. Because strong masculine and neuter nouns have back vowels in the plural, alternations like /æ/ in the singular vs. /ɑ/ in the plural are common in this noun class:

/æ/~/ɑ/ alternation in masculine and neuter strong nouns
Case	Masculine		Neuter
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	dæġ	dagas	fæt	fatu
Accusative	dæġ	dagas	fæt	fatu
Genitive	dæġes	daga	fætes	fata
Dative	dæġe	dagum	fæte	fatum

[edit] Breaking

Breaking in Old English is the diphthongization of the short vowels /e, æ/ to short (monomoraic) /eo, æɑ/ when followed by /h/ or by /r/ or /l/ plus another consonant. Note that /l/ in implosive position has a velar quality (the "dark l" allomorph on PDE all, cold), and is therefore indicated as [ɫ]. The geminates rr and ll count as r or l plus another consonant. (But the change /e/ → /eo/ does not happen before /l/ plus consonant unless the cluster is /lh/.)

Examples:

• weorpan "to throw" < /werpan/

• wearp [wæɑrp] "threw (sing.)" < /wærp/

• feoh [feox] "money" < /feh/

• feaht [fæɑxt] "fought (sing.)" < /fæht/

• healp [hæɑɫp] "helped (sing.)" < /hælp/ (but no breaking in helpan "to help" because the consonant after /l/ is not /h/)

• feorr [feorr] "far" < /ferr/

• feallan [fæɑllɑn] "to fall" < /fællɑn/

• eolh [eoɫx] "elk" < /elh/

The breaking of /i, e/ as a result of i-mutation of /e, æ/ is /iy/.

Examples:

• hwierfþ "turns" (intr.) < /hwirfθ/ < /hwerfθ/ + I-mutation < *hwerbiþi

• hwierfan "to turn" (tr.) < /hwerfɑn/ < /hwærfɑn/ + I-mutation < *hwarbjan

[edit] h-loss

In the same contexts where the voiceless fricatives /f, θ, s/ become voiced, i.e. between vowels and between a voiced consonant and a vowel, /h/ is lost, with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel if it is short. Breaking before /rh/ and /lh/ takes place regardless of whether the /h/ is lost by this rule. An unstressed short vowel is absorbed into the preceding long vowel.

Examples:

• sċōs "shoe" (gen.) < /ʃoːes/ < /ʃoːhes/, cf. sċōh (nom.)

• fēos "money" (gen.) < /feːoes/ < /feohes/ < /fehes/, cf. feoh (nom.)

• wēalas "foreigners, Welsh people" < /wæɑlhɑs/ < /wælhɑs/, cf. wealh (sing.)

[edit] i-mutation

See i-mutation in Old English

[edit] Vowels after palatals

The vowels ie/īe and ea/ēa generally occur in Old English after ċ, ġ, sċ where the vowels e/ē and æ/ǣ would be expected.

Examples:

• sċieran "to cut", sċear "cut (past sing.)", sċēaron "cut (past pl.)", which belongs to the same conjugation class (IV) as beran "to carry", bær "carried (sing.)", bǣron "carried (pl.)"

• ġiefan "to give", ġeaf "gave (sing.)", ġēafon "gave (pl.)", ġiefen "given", which belongs to the same conjugation class (V) as tredan "to tread", træd "trod (sing.)", trǣdon "trod (pl.)", treden "trodden"

The traditional view of this (e.g. Campbell 1959, Mitchell and Robinson 2001) is that the vowels were actually diphthongized in this position.

A minority view (e.g. Lass 1994) is that this phenomenon is purely orthographic, and that no diphthongization took place. Under this view, the words listed above have the following pronunciations:

• sċieran [ʃerɑn]

• sċear [ʃær]

• sċēaron [ʃæːron]

• ġiefan [jevɑn]

• ġeaf [jæf]

• ġēafon [jæːvon]

• ġiefen [jeven]

The main argument in favor of this view is the fact that diphthongizations like /æ/ → [æɑ] and /e/ → [iy] (if this is the correct interpretation of orthographic ie) are phonetically unmotivated in the context of a preceding palatal or postalveolar consonant.

[edit] Vowel changes: an overview

West Germanic	Condition	Old English		Examples
			i- umlaut
*a		æ	e		*daga(z) > dæġ "day"; *batizō > betera "better"
	+n,m	a,o	e		*mann(z), manni(z) > man, mon, plur. men "man"
	+nf,nþ,ns	ō	ē		*tanþ(z), tanþi(z) > tōþ, plur. tēþ "tooth"; *gans, gansi(z) > gōs, plur. ġēs "goose"
	+ h, rC, lC	ea	ie		*arma(z) > earm "arm"; *aldizō > ieldra "elder"
	k,g,j+	ea	ie		Lat. castra > ċeaster "town, fortress"; *gasti(z) > ġiest "guest"
	before a,o,u	a			plur. *dagō(z) > dagas "days"
	u-umlaut	ea	eo		*alu > ealu "ale"; *asilu(z) > eosol "donkey"
*e		e	i		*etan, -iþ > etan, 3.sing. iteþ "eat"
	k,g,j+	ie	i		*skeran > sċieran "shear"
	+ h,rC,lC	eo	ie		*sehs > seox "six"; *werþan, -iþ > weorðan, 3.sing. wierþ "become"
*i		i			*fiska > fisċ "fish"
	+ nf,nþ,ns	ī			*finf > fīf "five"
	u-umlaut	i (io, eo)			*miluka > mioluc,meolc "milk"
*u		u	y		*sunu(z) > sunu "son"; *gudinjō > ġyden "goddess"
	+ nf,nþ,ns	ū	ȳ		*munþ(z) > mūþ "mouth"; *wunskian > wȳsċan "wish"
	a-umlaut (not before nasal)	o	e		*guda > god "god"; *duhtar, duhtri(z) > dohter, plur. dehter "daughter"
(*ē >) *ā		ǣ	ǣ		*slāpan > slǣpan "sleep", Lat. strāta > strǣt "street"; *dādi(z) > dǣd "deed"
	k,g,j+	ēa	īe		*jāra > ġēar "year"; Lat. cāseus > ċīese "cheese"
	+ n,m	ō	ē		*mānō > mōna "moon"; *kwāni(z) > kwēn "queen"
	+ h,rC,lC	ēa	īe		*nāha, nāhista > nēah, superl. nīehst "near, -est"
	+ w / +g^a,o,u,l^a,o,u	ā			*knāwan > cnāwan "know"
*ē		ē			*mēda > mēd "reward"
*ō		ō	ē		*fōt(z), fōti(z) > fōt, plur. fēt "foot"
*ī		ī			*wība > wīf "wife"
	+ h,rC,lC	īo > ēo	īe		*līhan > lēon, 3.pers. līehþ "lend"
*ū		ū	ȳ		*mūs, mūsi(z) > mūs, plur. mȳs "mouse"
*ai		ā	ǣ		*staina(z) > stān "stone", Lat. Caesar > cāsere "emperor", *hwaitja > hwǣte "wheat"
*au		ēa	īe		*auzō > ēare "ear"; *hauzjan > hīeran "hear"
*eu		ēo	īe		*deupa > dēop "deep"; *liuhtjan > līehtan "lighten"

[edit] Prosody

This section requires expansion.

[edit] References

• Baker, Peter S. (2007). Introduction to Old English (2nd edition ed.). Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-4051-5272-3. 

• Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-811943-7. 

• Lass, Roger (1994). Old English: A historical linguistic companion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43087-9. 

• Mitchell, Bruce, and Fred C. Robinson (2001). A Guide to Old English