libban

Historical Grammar

The verbs of the Weak Conjugation (the so-called Regular Verbs of Modern English) form their preterit and past participle by adding to the present stem a suffix with d or t: Modern English love, loved; sleep, slept.

The stem of the preterit plural is never different from the stem of the preterit singular; hence these verbs have only three distinctive tense-stems, or principal parts: viz., (1) the present indicative, (2) the preterit indicative, and (3) the past participle.

Weak verbs fall into three groups, illustrated in the following table:

CHAPTER XXI.

WEAK VERBS (§ 18).

122. The verbs belonging to the Weak Conjugation are generally of more recent origin than the strong verbs, begin frequently formed from the roots of strong verbs. The Weak Conjugation was the growing conjugation in O.E. as it is in Mn.E. We instinctively put our newly coined or borrowed words into this conjugation (telegraphed, boycotted); and children, by the analogy of weak verbs, say runned for ran, seed for saw, teared for tore, drawed for drew, and growed for grew. So, for example, when Latin dictāre and breviāre came into O.E., they came as weak verbs, dihtian and brēfian.

The Three Classes of Weak Verbs.

There is no difficulty in telling, from the infinitive alone, to which of the three classes a weak verb belongs. Class III has been so invaded by Class II that but three important verbs remain to it: habban, to have; libban, to live; and sęcgan, to say. Distinction is to be made, therefore, only between Classes II and I. Class II contains the verbs with infinitive in –ian not preceded by r. Class I contains the remaining weak verbs; that is, those with infinitive in –r-ian and those with infinitive in –an (not –ian).

Class I.

The preterit singular and past participle of Class I end in –ede and –ed, or –de and –ed respectively.

NOTE.—The infinitives of this class ended originally in –jan (= -ian). This accounts for the prevalence of i-umlaut in these verbs, and also for the large number of short-voweled stems ending in a double consonant (§ 115, Note 2). The weak verb is frequently the causative of the corresponding strong verb. In such cases, the root of the weak verb corresponds in form to the preterit singular of the strong verb: Mn.E. drench (= to make drink), lay (= to make lie), rear (= to make rise), and set (= to make sit), are the umlauted forms of drǫnc (preterit singular of drincan), læg (preterit singular of licgan), rās (preterit singular of rīsan), and sæt (preterit singular of sittan).

Preterit and Past Participle in –ede and –ed.

Verbs with infinitive in –an preceded by ri- or the double consonants mm, nn, ss, bb, cg (= gg), add –ede for the preterit, and –ed for the past participle, the double consonant being always made single:

ri: nęri-an, nęr-ede, genęr-ed, to save.

mm: fręmm-an, fręm-ede, gefręm-ed, to perform, [frame].

nn: ðęnn-an, ðęn-ede, geðęn-ed, to extend.

ss: cnyss-an, cnys-ede, gecnys-ed, to beat.

bb: swębb-an swęf-ede, geswęf-ed, to put to sleep.

cg: węcg-an, węg-ede, gewęg-ed, to agitate.

Note.—Lęcgan, to lay, is the only one of these verbs that syncopates the e: lęcgan, lęgde (lēde), gelęgd (gelēd), instead of lęgede, gelęged.

Preterit and Past Participle in –de and –ed.

All the other verbs belonging to Class I add –de for the preterit and -ed for the past participle. This division includes, therefore, all stems long by nature:

NOTE 1.—A preceding voiceless consonant (§ 9, Note) changes –de into –te: *grēt-de > grēt-te; *mēt-de; >mēt-te; *īec-de > īec-te. Syncope and contraction are also frequent in the participles: gegrēt-ed > *gegrēt-d > gegrēt(t); gelǣd-ed > gelǣd(d).

NOTE 2.—Būan, to dwell, cultivate, has an admixture of strong forms in the past participle: būan, būde, gebūd (bȳn, gebūn). The present participle survives in Mn.E. husband = house-dweller.

It includes, also, all stems long by position except those ending in mm, nn, ss, bb, and cg (§ 125):

NOTE.—The participles frequently undergo syncope and contraction: gesęnded > gesęnd; gesęted > gesęt(t); gespęnded>gespęnd; getręded > getręd(d).

Irregular Verbs of Class I.

There are about twenty verbs belonging to Class I that are irregular in having no umlaut in the preterit and past participle. The preterit ends in –de, the past participle in –d; but, through the influence of a preceding voiceless consonant (§ 9, Note), -ed is generally unvoiced to –te, and –d to –t. The most important of these verbs are as follows:

NOTE.—Such of these verbs as have stems in c or g are frequently written with an inserted e: bycgean, sēcean, tǣcean, etc. This e indicates that c and g have palatal value; that is, are to be followed with a vanishing y-sound. In such cases, O.E. c usually passes into Mn.E. ch: tǣc(e)an > to teach; rǣc(e)an > to reach; stręcc(e)an > to stretch. Sēc(e)an gives beseech as well as seek. See § 8.