I. Show the historical development of the English verb (OE > ME > NE).

At the end of OE vowels underwent a number of quantitative changes which affected the
employment and the phonological status of short and long vowels in the language. In OE
quantity was the main basis of correlation in the vowel system: short vowels were
phonemically opposed to long ones, roughly identical in quality. At that time vowel length an
inherited feature: OE short vowels had developed from PG short vowels, while long ones
went back to long vowels or bi-phonemic vowel sequences. In later OE and in Early ME
vowel length began to depend on phonetic conditions.
The earliest of positional quantitative changes was the readjustment of quantity before some
consonant clusters. (l) Short vowels were lengthened before two homorganic consonants, a
sonorant and a plosive; consequently, all vowels occurring in this position remained or
became long, e.g. OE wild>ME wild [wi:ld ]. (2) All other groups of two or more consonants
made the preceding long vowels short, and henceforth all vowels in this position became or
remained short, e.g. OE cepte>ME kepte ['kepta]. (3) Short vowels became long in open
syllables. This lengthening mainly affected the more open of the short vowels [e], [a] and [o],
but sometimes, though very seldom, it is also found in the close vowels, [i] and [u]. In the
process of lengthening close vowels acquired a more open quality, e.g., OE open>ME open
[o:]. In spite of some restrictions (e.g. no lengthening occurred in polysyllabic words and
before some suffixes, OE bodi; >ME body ('bodi ] (NE body), the alteration affected many
words. The changes of vowel quantity reduced the number of positions in which the
opposition of long vowels to short ones could be used for phonemic contrast. Before a
consonant cluster vowel quantity was now predetermined by the nature of the cluster; and in
open syllables three vowels [o:], [a:], [Ë] were always long. Consequently, opposition
through quantity could be used for distinction, as a phonological feature, only in the absence
of those phonetic conditions, namely: in closed syllables, in polysyllabic words, or with the
vowels [i ] and [u] in open syllables. Such is the contrast, e.g. in ME risen ['ri:zan ] inf. and
risen ['rizan] Part. II (NE rise, risen). The limitations in the application of vowel length as a
distinctive feature undermined the role of vowel quantity in the language.
II. What is meant by:
- Grimm’s Law;
Grimm's law was the first discovery of a systematic sound change, and it led to the creation
of historical phonology as a separate discipline of historical linguistics. The correspondence
between Latin p and Germanic f was first noted by Friedrich von Schlegel in 1806. In 1818,
Rasmus Rask extended the correspondences to other Indo-European languages such as
Sanskrit and Greek, and to the full range of consonants involved. In 1822, Jacob Grimm put
forth the rule in his book Deutsche Grammatik and extended it to include standard German.
He noticed that there were many words which had different consonants from what his law
predicted, and these exceptions defied linguists for several decades, until they eventually
received explanation from Danish linguist Karl Verner in the form of Verner's law.
- The Period of full endings in the history of English;
OE was a typical Old Germanic language, with a purely Germanic vocabulary, and few
foreign borrowings. OE was an inflected or “synthetic” language with a well-developed
system of morphological categories, especially in the noun and adjective. Therefore, Henry
Sweet called OE the “period of full endings”.
- Analytical forms.
In OE there were no analytical forms. They appeared later:
· ME – Future Tense, Perfect, Passive and Subjunctive forms;
· NE – Continuous and Do-forms;
They were exceptionally analytical. The analytical forms consist of several words having
grammatical meaning.
1. Future tense: shall + inf – future action; willen + inf. Eg: wol ye maken assurance – will
you make assurance.
2. The Passive Voice: beon +Part II → analytical forms to express state action. The wide use
of passive constr. in the 18th – 19th cent → high productivity of the P.Voice.
3. Perfect forms: go down to 2 types of syntactical combination.
· habbon (have) + Part II
· bēon (be) + Part II
Eg: Ic habbe þonne bēsc getengenne – я имел ту рыбку пойманной.
In MEand NEonly the auxiliary habban was left while bēon ceased to be used in the Perfect
forms not to confuse them with the Passive forms.
Do-Forms
1.In NE“do-periphrasis” was used in the Past and Present of the Indicative Mood.
2. 16th c. –“Do” was used in negative, affirmative and interrogative sentences and was freely
interchangeable with the simple forms (without “do”), e.g.:
Heard you all this? = Did you hear all this?
I know not why he cries. = I don’t know why he cries.
He knew it. = He did know it (without any meaning of emphasis).
3. 17th c.– “do” was left only in negative and interrogative sentences to keep the word-order
S + P + O (e.g. I (S) pity (P) him (O). Do you (S) pity (P) him (O)?). In affirmative sentences
“do” acquired an emphatic meaning (e.g. Did you really see him? – I didsee him, I swear!).
Continuous Forms
Sometimes they were found in OE:
Formation
bēon + Participle 1
2.In OEit denoted a “quality”, was not limited in time (as it is in the ModE Continuous
forms) e.g.:
Sēō eorðe is berende missenlīcra fuζela – This land bears many birds.
3.In MEContinuous forms fell into disuse.
4.In NE these forms reappeared together with a synonymous form:
be + Participle 1 = be + on/in + Gerund (indicated a process of limited duration)
e.g.:
He was on huntinge – He was hunting (literally, He was on hunting).
III. Analyze the underlined vowels and consonants in bold type. State phonetic
phenomena in the given pairs of words.
Model: L. decem > E. ten (Grimm’s Law)
1. Skr. rudhira > OE red
др.-англ. rēād „красный” || скр. rudhirah, др.-греч. eruthros, лат. ruber, ирл. ruad,
ст.-слав. рьдръ, укр. рудий, готск. rauþs, др.-верх.-нем. rōt, др.-исл. rauðr, н.-англ. red,
н.-нем. rot;
2. L. mater > OE modor
др.-англ. mōdor „мать” || скр. māta2r-, др.-греч. (дор.) mā2tēr, лат. māter, др.-ирл. māthir,
ст.-слав. матер-, др.-верх.-нем. muiter, др.-исл. mo2Dir, н.-англ. mother, н.-нем. Mutter;
3. Gt. hausjan > OE hieran
Goth. hausjan – OE hieran (NE hear), Goth. was, wesum OE was, waron (was, were).
4. Gt. domjan > OE deman
Gt doms,*domjan > OE dom,deman (doom, to deem) (Palatal mutation)
5. OE hefun > heofon
OE hefun > heofon (heaven) e > ea OE c eru > cearu (care)(VELAR MUTATION)
6. OE singan > ME singen
From Proto-West Germanic *singwan, from Proto-Germanic *singwaną, from Proto-Indo-
European *seng /ˈsin.ɡɑn/, [ˈsiŋ.ɡɑn]
7. OE sceld > scield /ʃeld/, [ʃeɫd]
From Old English sċield, sċeld, sċild, sċyld.
8. OE blind > blīnd /blind/ /blaɪnd/
From Proto-West Germanic *blind.
From Middle English blynd, from Old English blind, from Proto-West Germanic *blind,
from Proto-Germanic *blindaz.
9. OE cild > ME child /t͡ʃild/, [t͡ʃiɫd]
From Old English ċild, from Proto-Germanic *kelþaz.
10. ME like [li:k ] > NE like [laik]
Noun from Middle English like (“pleasure, will, like”), from the verb Middle English liken
(“to like”).
Adjective from Middle English like, lyke, from Old English ġelīċ by shortening, influenced
by Old Norse líkr, glíkr; both from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“like, similar, same”). Related
to alike; more distantly, with lich and -ly. Cognate with West Frisian like (“like; as”),
Saterland Frisian gliek (“like”), Danish lig (“alike”), Dutch gelijk (“like, alike”), German
gleich (“equal, like”), Icelandic líkur (“alike, like, similar”), Norwegian lik (“like, alike”)
Swedish lik (“like, similar”)
Adverb from Middle English like, lyke, liche, lyche, from Old English ġelīċe (“likewise, also,
as, in like manner, similarly”) and Old Norse líka (“also, likewise”); both from Proto-
Germanic *galīkê, from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“same, like, similar”).
Conjunction from Middle English like, lyke, lik, lyk, from the adverb Middle English like.
Preposition from Middle English like, lyke, liche, lyche, lijc, liih (“similar to, like, equal to,
comparable with”), from Middle English like (adjective) and like (adverb).