LECTURE 7

Grammar: morphology.
Parts of speech: general characteristics
All the vocabulary of Old English can be divided into notional or independent parts of
speech and form words according to their categorical generilzed meaning, morphological
characteristics and syntactical functions (კატეგორიალური განზოგადებული
მნიშვნელობის, მორფოლოგიური მახასიათებლების და სინტაქსური ფუნქციების
მიხედვით ძველი ინგლისურის მთელი ლექსიკური შედგენილობა იყოფა ძირითად ანუ
დამოუკიდებელ მეტყველების ნაწილებად და ფორმალურ სიტყვებად ).
Nominal parts of speech − nouns, adjectives and pronouns − had grammatical categories of
number, gender and case (მეტყველების სახელად ნაწილებს ჰქონდათ რიცხვის, სქესის და
ბრუნვის ფლექსიური გრამატიკული კატეგორია) .
Gender. Old English nouns, adjectives, pronouns (except the first and the second persons)
and cardinal numerals რაოდენობრივი რიცხვითი სახელები (an “one”, twā “two”, ƀrēo
“three”) belonged to one of the following gender classes: masculine, feminine and neuter. The
gender of adjectives, pronouns and numerals was a purely grammatical category while that of
nouns was both lexical and grammatical. Nouns indicating males were generally masculine and
those indicating females were feminine. For instance, fæder “father”, brōƀor “brother” were
masculine in gender, while mōdor “mother”, sweostor “sister” were feminine.
The gender of Old English nouns did not always depend upon sex. For instance, the nouns
− mægden “girl, maiden”, wīf “wife”, cild “child” − instead of being feminine or masculine, were
neuter. Nouns indicating inanimate things were not necessarily neuter. For example, the nouns
− stān “stone”, fōt “foot”, sunne “sun” were masculine, but hænd “hand”, dǣd “deed”, mōna
“moon” were feminine.
Compound nouns followed the gender of their second element: For instance, the
compound noun goldsmiƀ “godsmith” which was formed from (ƀæt) gold “gold” and (sē) smiƀ
“smith” was masculine; while the noun (sē) wīfman “woman” which was formed from (ƀæt) wīf
“wife” and (sē) mann “man” was also masculine because of the second element (“sē mann”)
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 Case. Nouns in Old English had 4 cases – Nominative (სახელობითი), Genitive
(ნათესაობითი), Dative (მიცემითი) and Accusative (ბრალდებითი), but adjectives and some
pronouns had one more case − Instrumental (მოქმედებითი).
Number. Nominal parts of speech had two numbers − singular and plural The number of
Old English nouns expressed the really existing relation between the noun and the number, i.e.
whether it is one thing or many.

THE NOUN

The declensions of the Old English nouns are divided into two large classes – the strong or
vowel declension, which had four subdivisions according to their stem endings in − a, ō, i and u,
and the weak or consonant declension.
The meaning and use of Old English case forms. Every Old English case could have
different meanings according to its syntactical function:
Nominative Case (სახელობითი). The Nominative was the case of the subject of the
sentence and words agreeing with it.
Genitive Case (ნათესაობითი). The Genitive case had a variety of syntactical functions,
according to which it could be used as subjective (or active) and objective (or passive) Genitive.
The subjective Ge-nitive is very common. Some verbs, especially those which express request,
take two objects, one of which (the thing) is in the genitive and the other (the person) is in the
accusative; other verbs may be followed by the genitive(the thing) and the dative(the person).
Dative Case (მიცემითი). The Dative was the case of the indirect object and in this
function it is mostly used with the verbs of saying, giving, as well as words expressing the idea of
likeness, nearness and so on. The Dative case was governed by the following prepositions: æfter
(“after”), be (“by, along, concerning”), for (“for, because of”), mid (“with”), tō (“to”).
Accusative Case (ბრალდებითი) was the case of the direct object.

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 PRONOUNS

The system of Old English pronouns was represented by personal, possessive,

demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite and negative, and relative pronouns.
Personal pronouns. Personal pronouns had four cases − Nominative, Genitive, Dative and
Accusative. The declension of the first and second persons in Old English differs from that of the
third person, as the former does not show any gender distinctions.
Possessive pronouns. The possessive pronouns of the first and second persons were the
Genitives of the personal pronouns. They were inflected as strong adjectives. However, the
Genitives of the third person were used as indeclinable possessives.
Demonstrative pronouns. The Old English demonstratives were – sē, sēo, ѣǣt (that) – and
those compounded of “ѣē” and “sē” − ѣēs, ѣēos, ѣis (this). Demonstrative pronouns had one
more case – Instrumental, five in all.
Interrogative pronouns. Interrogative pronouns were used only in questions. The simple
interrogative in Old English had only two forms for gender, the one – hwā (who) − being
masculine and feminine, the other – hwǣt (what) − neuter.
Indefinite and negative pronouns. The indefinite pronouns sum (some), ǣniʒ (any) and the
negative pronoun nān (none), nǣniʒ (nothing, no one) were declined like strong strong
adjectives.
Relative pronouns. In Old English there was no simple relative pronoun, but its place was
filled by the demonstratives sē, sēo, ѣǣt (that), the relative particle ѣē, or by the union of sē ѣē.

ADJECTIVES

The twofold adjective declension. The old English adjectives had two declensions − the
strong and the weak. The use of the strong or weak forms of adjectives depended on their special
functions in the sentence.

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 The strong form in the positive and superlative degrees was used predicatively and also
when used attributively without any other modifying word (for instance, Ic eom synful man = “I
am a sinful man.), while the weak form was used after demonstrative and possessive pronouns.

THE VERB

The Old English verb had the following categories: tense (present: ic write “I write”, pre-
terite: ic wrāt “I wrote”), mood (Indicative თხრობითი, Imperative ბრძანებითი , Subjunctive
კავშირებითი კილო), number (singular: ic write “I write” and plural: we wrītaƀ “we write”),
person (ic write “I write”, ƀū wrītest “thou writest”, hē wrīteƀ “he writes”). In the plural there
were no person distinctions: wē, ӡē, hiē writaƀ “we , you, they, write”. There were three verbals
(3 უპირო ფორმა) - the Infinitive, the Present and the Past Participle.
The Old English verbs were divided into two principal groups − strong and weak verbs.
The strong verbs, nowadays known as irregular verbs, formed their preterite and Past Participle
by means of Ablaut (Vowel Gradation). The weak verbs, nowadays known as regular verbs,
formed their preterite by the adding a dental suffix -de, (-te), and their Past Participle by means
of the dental suffix -d (-t). Besides those classes there were a few other minor groups.

Study Questions:

1. Discuss the gender of the Old English nominal parts of speech.

2. Name the cases of the Old English nominal parts of speech.
3. Discuss the declension system of Old English nouns.
4. Name and discuss Old Engish pronouns.
5. Discuss the twofold adjective declension.
6. Discuss the Old Engish verb.