OLD ENGLISH: PARTS OF SPEECH

1. The definite article Old English had inflected articles Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter Nominative Sē Sē ðæt Genitive ðæs ðære ðæs Dative ðæm ðære ðæm Accusative ðone ðā ðæt Instrumental ðy-ðon ðy-ðon

2. Plural All genders Nominative ðā Genitive ðāra Dative ðæm Accusative ðā The definite article

3. The Personal pronoun Singular 1 st person 2 nd person 3 rd person He 3 rd person She 3 rd person It Nominative ic ðū h ē H ēo hit Genitive mĪn ðĪm his hiere his Dative m ē ð ē Him hiere him Accusative m ē ( mec ) ð ē ( ðec ) hine h Īe hit

4. Dual We two You two Nominative wit git Genitive uncer incer Dative unc inc Accusative unc inc Plural We You 3 rd person ( ellos-ellas ) Nominative wit git h Īe Genitive uncer incer hiera Dative unc inc him Accusative unc inc h Īe

5. The verb Old English had two simple tenses by inflection: Present and past. It recognized the indicative , subjunctive and imperative moods.

6. Verbs were divided in strong and week: A) Strong: they have the power to indicate a change of tense by a modification of their root vowel. Eg : S I NG - S A NG - S U NG In Old English the vowel of the past tense differed in the first person , third person and second person singular and all the plurals had another vowel. In strong verbs we have four forms: infinitive , preterit singular (1 st and 3 rd person), preterit plural and past participle. B) Weak: They are affected by the addition of a dental or and extra syllable. Eg : Walk – walked – walked-

7. VERB INFINITIVE PRETERITE SINGULAR 1 st & 3 rd person PRETERITE PLURAL PAST PARTICIPLE DRIVE dr Ī f an drāf drifon drifen CHOOSE Cēos an cēas curon coren HELP help an healp hulpon holpen BEAR ber an bær bæron boren SPEAK sprec an spræc spræcon sprecen FARE, GO far an fōr fōon faren FALL feall an fēoll fēollon feallen

8. WEAK VERBS * A large groups of verbs in Old English formed their past tense by adding : - ede - ode -de TO PERFOM  fremman Preterit 1 st &3 rd person  fremede Past participle  gefremed

9. The Resourcefulness of The Old English Vocabulary Language which lacked borrowings from French and Latin. Limited way to convey his meaning without specific vocabulary related to thoughts and feelings.

10. English MOOD= mental state * Old English  mōd Heart – mind- spirit – boldness – courage * Adjective : m ōdig High-minded- spirited – bold– arrogant Adverb: m ōdiglice Boldy – proudly Verb : m ōdigian To bear oneself proudly To be indignant To rage

11. New words can be perceived due to their relations with the root. Mood  mōd Ge mōd : disposed, minded Mōdfull : haughty. Mōdleas : spiritless Combinations with other words was possible and it helped to intensify the meaning. Mōdsefa , mōdgepoht , mōdhord : which means mind – thought – understanding. Also adjectives were formed with these combinations swĪmōd (great of soul ) swĪp = strong

12. Self-explaning compounds These compounds are made of two or more words whose meaning in combination is self-evident. Leohtfæt lamp  leoht = light - fæt = vessel Medu-heall  mead hall

13. Prefixes and suffixes As Old English was a flexible language, new words could be formed with prefixes and suffixes. The use of prefixes helped to form new verbs EG. Sēttan ( to set)  assetan ( to place)  forsettan ( to obstruct)  besettan (to appoint) Several words were formed with suffixes such as – ig ; -full; - lēas ; - nes and – ung .