OE MORPHOLOGY

 Nouns and adjectives were inflected for case/number/gender, but there was a
considerable degree of syncretism in the declensions.

 Determiners were more distinctive than nouns/adjectives and played an important

role as function markers of noun phrases (in the singular):

se cyning meteþ þone biscop

þone biscop meteþ se cyning

It is the declension of the determiner that indicates the case, number and gender
and allows the message to be understood independently from the word order.

 In the nominal declension, OE allowed for 8 formal distinctions, but the most
distinctive declension (strong) only had 6 formal distinctions and the ‘weak declension’
only 4.

 word-order and prepositions are crucial to indicate grammatical function.

THE NOUN

Old English nouns are formed by:

 Root: lexical unit that distinguishes one word from another.

 Thematic suffix: added to the root (vocalic and consonantal).

 Grammatical classification of a noun determined by the thematic suffixes/

specify the declension the word belongs to.

 Sometimes the root is followed directly by inflexions (no thematic suffix): L.

rex-regis; OE. fot-fet)

AÑADIR TABLAS

PERSONAL PRONOUNS: Singular, plural, dual

Distinction between sg. /pl. in 2nd person pronoun.

The paradigm of personal pronouns is the only one that retains case to an
extent in PDE. (Notice the effects of GVS in pronunciation)

DEMONSTRATIVES: inflected for gender, number and case.

se - þæt - seo: distal demonstrative (‘that’), definite article (‘the’): se mann

com: ‘The person came’, personal pronoun: se is her ‘He is here’, relative
pronoun: se mann se com her (‘the person who came here’).

þes - þis - þeos: proximal demonstrative (‘this’)

AÑADIR TABLAS

SYNTAX

OE favoured 3 types of word order: S-V-O, V-S-O, S-O-V.

V-S-O : common when the clause begins with an adverbial expression (especially þa
then and þær there) AND in questions (hwy didest þu þæt? why did you do that?;
hæst þu ænigne geferan? have you any companion?).

Noun Phrase Structure: quite similar to that of Modern English (det-adj-noun).

Exceptions: ◦ The forms eall all, begen both, and adjectives ending in -weard precede
the determiner.

(eal þes middangeard this entire earth; begen þa gebroþru both the brothers;
on suþeweardum þaem lande in the southern part of the land).

◦ It is possible for adjectives to follow the noun, or for one to precede it and
another to follow it.

◦ Titles of rank usually follow the name they qualify: Aelfred cyning King
Alfred.

PHONOLOGY
Changes in Old English.

• Front Mutation (i-mutation). A back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the
following syllable contains [i], [i:] or [j]. Consequently, the [i], [i:] or [j] disappeared or
changed to e. This was a kind of assimilation, the affected vowels being moved to a place of
articulation nearer to that of the following vowel or j.

Dal dole [no front mutation]

*daliþ he divides→ front mutation of the a (then to e) → dælan deal

◦ a → front mutation → æ (dole vs. deal) ◦ u → front mutation → y (mouse vs. mice) ◦ o →
front mutation → e (food vs. feed).