Morphological Classification of Verbs

In the course of the MnE period local dialects were, as we saw, gradually superseded

by the literary language. However, they have not disappeared and they still are a means of

communication in the respective territories.

Modern dialects are divided into six groups. The modern Scottish and Northern

dialects correspond to the ME Northern, the modem Western, Central and Eastern to the

ME Midland. The Southern dialects are a more unified group.

Morphological Classification of Verbs

In OE there were strong verbs, weak verbs, preterite-presents and anomalous verbs.

Strong verbs had vowel gradation in the root. There were over 300 verbs mostly of common

Germanic or IE descent. The strong verbs were divided into 7 classes. Weak verbs were very

numerous. There were 3 classes of weak verbs with different stem suffixes. In OE there were

12 preterite-verbs, all coming from common Germanic. These verbs were inflected in the pie-

sent like past tense of strong verbs, in the past - like past tense of weak verbs.

The Development of Strong Verbs

OE The strong verbs formed their stems by means of vowel gradation or ablaut and by adding certain suffixes.

ME The changes which took place since the OE period are these. Both the infinitive ending -

an, the past plural ending -onwere weakened to -en(-n). In class 6 and 4 verbs the past singular form began to penetrate into the past plural, thus preparing the reduction of four main

parts of a strong verb to three, which is characteristic of the MnE period. On the other hand, in

class 2 and 3 verbs the vowel of the second participle began to spread to the past plural. Grammatical alteration of consonants has been completely abandoned. The OE prefix e-

was reduced to -y.

MnE In formation of strong verb forms an important change also took place in this period. In

OE and ME every strong verb was characterized by four basic forms: (1) infinitive, (2) 1st and

3rd person singular, past indicative, (3) plural past indicative with 2nd person singular and past

subjunctive, (4) second participle.

In MnE these four forms were reduced to three: (1) infinitive, (2) past tense, (3) second

participle.

A number of strong verbs became weak in MnE period. For example:

Class 1: gripen - grip, gliden - glide

Class 2: chewen - chew, sethen - seethe

Class 3: climben - climb

Class 5: weyen - weigh

Class 6: shaven - shave

Class 7: slepen - sleep