SEMANTIC CHANGE = change in meaning

The meaning of a word is made up of components -> attributes (which are adjectives) Some words cannot be broken down Some components have a certain connotation, therefore are subjective Can be added, dropped; prominence is changed Meaning: detached from the thing it refers to -> we still get a concrete image in our brains All components are supplied by the listener, but misunderstandings still occur

PHONETIC CHANGE

Vowels:

ME: became language of commoners, also spoken by non-native speakers -> a simpler system of vowels: a, e, i, o, u Certain vowels went to cardinal ones

The development different between vowels:

Most turned y to i -> (spelling) West midland dialects: y to i -> South west midland: y -> South eastern: y -> e (bury was pronounced with the y sound in OE; first vowel pronounced according to the south eastern dialect, spelled according to west midland dialect -> later e and o split into long and short (closer to ))

OE: diphthongs (long and short): ea, eo, ie Turned into monophthongs with SMOOTHINGEa -> aEo -> e (were not widely used in OE)Ie -> e

in ME new diphthongs arose -> all closing diphthongs ending in semi-vowels or w or j many came from OE , new short vowels evolved in ME -> scheme more complicated again most changed: ME and best tested by using a short word with the same spelling

a -> // (glad: ME glad, NE /gld/) if preceded by /w/ fronting did not happen, it changed to rounded // if followed by a velar consonant /g, k/ the rounding did not happen

ME /u/ -> Modern English: // in some regions the change didnt happen pronounced //, in some more //

words which never changed: when preceded by a bilabial and followed by /l/, /t/ or //

THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT (1500-1700) A series of changes which affected all long vowels The spelling did not follow the changes Clues: misspellings, rhymes

1400 15001600 1700 i ei [a] rsan > [raz] rise u ou [a] hs > [has] house [i:] ft > [fi:t] feet [u:] fl > [fu:l] fool [i:] strm > [stri:m] stream [ou] bt > [bt] boat [e] nme > [nem

Why? Hard to say No outer cause The same timber of the high vowel is how to mantain no possible explanation If there is a letter in a word that we do not pronounce, it had to be pronounced at some time in history and disappeared after 1500. Otherwise it would not be in the word at all.

CLOSING DIPHTHONGS IN REGIONAL VARIETES

[a, e, , , a]

Southern accents -> wider first elementNorthern accents - > narrow first elementFar south-west E, far north E, Scotland, Ireland, Wales: monophthongs

NE [i:] < ME (NE [a:])NE [u:] < ME (NE [3:]NE [e] < ME NE [a] < ME NE [] < ME

All resuslts of the shift are diphthongs today. Some of the closing diphthongs today are a result of the GVS.

ME DIPHTHONGS IN NE

ME ei, ai > ai (13th c) > NE [e]OE d > ME dai > NE [de] dayOE r > ME grei > NE [gre] gray, grey

ME in iu, eu, > in (13th c) > NE [ju:]OE fawe > ME feu(e) > fiu > NE [fju:] fewME amsen > amius (e (n > NE [mju:z] amuse

ME a > NE [:]ME cause > NE [k:z] cause

ME oi, ui, > NE []ME choice > NE [ts] choice

DEPENDENT CHANGES OF ME VOWELS IN NE

a) ME a before VOICELESS FRICATIVESME a > NE [] > [:] > [a:]/_[+fricative, -voiced]In the 17th century: lengthened, retracted to the position of [a:] Moves from East Anglia to America: grass etc. because it hasnt changed yet at that time

Class, path, basket, cast, afterALSO: father, ratherLATER: dance, branch, tomato if [n] is followed by a [t] or []BUT: masculine, massive, classic, aspect, passage

[] : [a:]The trap-bath split

Northern accents, Scottish, Northern Irish [a] Neither [] or [a:] are pronounced

b) Before n/m + consonantDance, grant, demand, example BUT: romance, pant, bandWelsh, Irish, Australian have [], although [a:] in path

c) Before former l + labial, some other lexical itemsPalm, half, banana, tomato To some extent you can predict the changes, but it doesnt always work

a) ME vowels before r

Short vowels:

ME a > NE [] > [:] > [a:]/_r (c, #)Car, carbon -> started to be lengthened

ME o > NE [:]/_(c, #)Forth, north -> lengthening effect

ME e > NE [] > [3:]/_(c, #) serveME i > NE [] > [3:]/_(c, #) thirdME u > [] > [3:]/_(c, #) curse

Long vowels:

ME > NE [a] + [] > [a]/_r fire GVS completeME > NE [a] + [] > [a]/_r hair GVS complete In some cases the GVS was already completed like in these two cases

ME > NE [i:] + [] > []/_r here GVS completeME > NE [] + [] > []/_r poor GVS complete Only because of [r]

ME > NE [e:] > [e:] + []/_r bear GVS completeME > NE [o:] + [] > []/_r more GVS complete

ME > NE [:] + [] > [] bare GVS incomplete

[] > [] > [:] poor[] > [:] more

[a] > [a] tyre[a] > [a] tower Disappearing esp in lexemes that do not appear in the same environment, context People more careful of maintaining this when it plays a role, helps distinguish the words

ME vowels a, o before l Very frequently happens the same to l as to r (on a smaller scale)

Late ME:

ME a > a/_l (c, #)ME au > NE [:]

ME all > aul > NE [:l] allME o > ou/_l (c, #)

ME folle > foulk > NE [fk] folk

VOWELS IN UNACCENTED SYLLABLES

(1) OE unaccented vowels were levelled to in ME

OE cyngas (N.pl.), cynges (G. sg.)OE cynge (D. sg.), cynga (G. pl.)

ME kinges,; kinges(Me kinge; kinge)

(2) ME was lost by the 14th century, first in final, then in medial position, especially in grammatical endings No longer a difference between plural and genitive

NE [kz] kings; [kz] kings;

(3) If preserved, ME [] is pronounced [] or [] in NE

Begin, ended, houses, of Do, done (< dn); go, gone (< gn); be, been (< bon)

The voicing of fricatives in final unaccented position:Of [v] : off [of] -> relaxed speech organs

[s] > [z] / [-accented] _ #[t] > [v][] > [] ME of > of [v], off [of][tS] > [d] ME es > [z] > NE [z], [z], [s] -> words, churches ME with > [w] ME spinach > [spnd]

FROM ME TO NE

ME [x] and [] , ME [] > NE /ME light > light > NE [lat] light

Qnot: ME [x] > NE /, f Enough, tough, rough, though, daughter, slaughter

If vowel preceding gh is short f, otherwise not pronounced (not always)

(witmann pl. wif men ME wimman pl wimmen)( wumman wummen )

H droppingIn many RP speakers /n/ is mute in initial position in unstressed pronoms and auxiliaires

[stopn] stop (h) imH-dropping much more common in other varietiesNo H-dropping in scottish and irish accents

YOD COALESCENCE AND YOD DROPPING

Merger of /j/ with preceding alveoral plosives to form affricates

NE [s] + [j] > [S] RussiaNE [z] + [j] > [] precisionNE [t] + [] > [t] natureNE [d] + [j] > [d] soldier

AFTER ACCENTED SYLLABLES

YOD- DROPPING loss of /j/

NE [j] > - / (t, , d, S, r, t) early NE

In early NE after [r] in most RP (younger) speakers, today also after /l/ and /s/: rude, luke, allude, suit, suitableLondon (northern parts); AmE: after all alveolars: news, duty, studentNorth England: after []: enthousiasticEaster England: after all consonants before [u:]: human, beauty

The loss of non-prevocalic r and final position18th century

ME r > 0/_(c, #) car, carbon, for, forth

Rhotic accents: some English accents, Scottish English, Irish English, Canadian English, American English

Non-rhotic accents: RP, most English accents, South African English, Australian, New Zealand English

Linking and intrusive r

L- DROPPING

17th century

NE l > 0/[+back vowel]_[peripheral consonant]Peripheral consonant labial or velarTalk, calf, calves

L-realisation: Cockney, Estuary English, New York, New Zealand English,

Late ME:NE g > 0/[]_#Among, long, bring in word final position the g is not pronounced

[g] preserved in non-final position: anger, England, longer, stronger

BUT: [s] singer, [rol] wrongly -> derivational process! Derived from a verb sing which dropped [g] -> final position

In comparatives and superlatives -> pronounce [g] Derivated from verbs -> dont pronounce [g]

Early NE [] > [n]: talkin -> relaxed pronounciation

PHONEMIC SPLIT! (phonetic change when one variant spreads at the expense of another)

/n/ - [n], [] > /n/, / /

[] (g-droppin) in PDE

Most RP speakers have [n] in ing.

Western central England (Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham): singing [sigig]Early NE:

NE b > 0/m_#Climb, comb, bomb -> if preceded by m

ALSO: climbing, climber, climbsIn final position

Sporadic loss of final [d] after [n]

Lawn > f. lande, scan > L. scandere, line (lime) < linde

RULE: voiced plosives were lost in final position if preceded by a nasal Happened to b, g, but there are many exceptions

LOSS OF WORD-INITIAL CONSONANTS

17th century:

NE k, g > 0/#_n (if this particular consonant is followed by n)Knight, know, gnome

Night knight Before 17th c k was not before n etc. Somewhere between 15th c and now it happened

NE w > 0/#_rWrong, write, wrench

GERMANIC *xw IN ENGLISH

Germ. *xw > OE [xw] hwt, hw

OE [xw] > ME [] (southern dialects): what, where, which

ME [] > NE [w], [h]/_[u:] what, who Only when preceded by u

Not in Scotland, Ireland, parts of USA

(Scots, Hiberno-English: wh > [f] whine=fine)

The complexity and interdependence of linguistic change

Grammaticalisation of phonetic variation Palatal mutation -> mutation plurals Indo-European vowel gragation -> Germanic system of strong verbs

Contradiction of periphrastic structures

GRAMMATICAL CHANGES

Grammar is a system of morpho-syntactic tools, which the speakers of a language use to convey mandatory information (grammatical changes).

Two aspects of grammatical change:

I. The number (list) grammatical category changes The emergence of feminine gender in Indo-European languages The loss of dual in most Indo-European languages. The general loss of grammatical categories in pidgin languages. The emergence of grammatical categories in creole languages

II. The encodement of grammatical categories changes Full content words become function words Function words can turn into inflections Alternative (periphrastic) structures emerge

Loss/Emergence of grammatical categories in English

Nominal categories:In Old English: Number: singular, plural, dual (in pronouns) Case: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative Gender: GrammaticalIn Modern English: Number: Singular, plural (no number distinction in 2nd person personal pronoun) Case: Common case, possessive case (objective case) Gender: Natural

OE dual personal pronouns: wit (1st person), git (2nd person)Personal pronouns for the 2nd person:

2nd personSingular nominative: : OE > ME: th > NE [au] thouSingular dative: OE > ME: th > NE: [yi:] yePlural nominative: OE > ME y > NE [ju:] youPlural dative: OE ow > ME you > NE [ju:] you

French influence (Middle English): plural of respect

Thou, thee obsolete since the 18th century

Singular forms still in use in the north and in the ruralSouth-westThou, thee > tha:Tha cast = you can

You refers to the addressee. There used to be a distinction between thou and ye. In Middle English under the influence of French culture singular became marked for intimacy, and NOT the plural for formality. The problem is that you do not know whether singular or plural is meant, so we use constructions like you guys, you lot, yall to make things clearer. Language compensated because the need arose. But it never goes back. We rather have the trend of constant innovation, as no language is perfect.

GENDER How to encode grammatical change? By adding stemsIn Old English gender was grammatical, discernable mostly through adjectives/determiners and pronominal references. It makes no sense and it cannot be guessedse gda mann (h) - Masculineso gde sunne (ho)- Feminine t gde wf (hit) Neuter The grammatical gender was lost in Middle English and there was no agreement anymore. Pronominal reference assumed the form of natural gender. The good man (he)The good sun (it)The good wife (she)

Gender encodement in NE:Man woman human (being), personGirl boy - youngsterKing queen ruler, monarchFather mother parentBrother sister siblingSon daughter child, kid, offspringBull cow ox, steer cattleBullock heifer calfFox, Reynard vixenDog bitchStallion, steed mare horseCold fillyRam ewe sheepBoar sow pig, swineLion lionessBoar bear sow bearTiger tigress Tom cat tabby catBilly goat nanny goat Cock sparrow hen sparrow He wolf she wolfGender is seen from the meaning of the word, rather than adjectives and determiners. Relevance of the gender determines the expression:The difference between a bull and a cow, as the latter gives milk VS a dog, where the gender basically does not matter.

VERBAL CATEGORIES

Old English: Person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd Tense: Present, preterite Mood: Indicative, imperative, subjunctive Aspect: / Voice: active, passiveModern English: Person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd Tense: present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future, future perfect Mood: Indicative, imperative, (subjunctive) Aspect: progressive, non-progressive Voice: active, passive

Old English: two formal tenses: preterite and present (non-preterite)

OE PRESENT TENSE real present, universal time, future referenceOE PRETERITE TENSE a single act in the past, a continuous act in the past, present perfect, past perfect

TYPOLOGICAL FEATURES OF OLD ENGLISH

Old English - Inflectional languageOld English did, though not exclusively, but predominantly, express grammatical categories with bound morphemes (very Indo-European) Inflections. namENA = plural + genitive (number, case, gender)wulfas = puralIn the ending one or more categories are encoded: number + case + (gender)mannes nama genitive singular = name of the man wulfum gegiefen dative plural = given to the wolvest he dyden person + number + tense + mood

Modern English, on the other hand, is much more analytical (isolating=. a) Man's name, name of the manb) Given to the wolves c) That they should doGrammatical categories are expressed with parahprastic constructions (having the nature of being a paraphrase).

Old English Concordial language (displays agreement)Grammatical categories are encoded redundantly, they are repeated. Agreement, redundancy, concord: the adjustment of forms within phrases and/or between the subject and the predicator (the most frequent). Geongum mannum gedafena t he leornien sumne wsdm.In Modern English agreement is kept only in the 3rd person singular of the present indicative. It behooves young people that they acquire some knowledge.

THE NOUN PHRASE (NOUNS) Nominative, genitive, dative, accusative -> declensions Singular, plural

DECLENSIONS = patterns of case/number endings 5 major, several minor; vocalic or strong

MIDDLE ENGLISH- REDUCTION OF PLURAL ENDINGSGender encodement was dropped, except where it mattered. With number, only manner of encodement was changed. Two declensions were expanded: the a-declension and the weak declension (mainly in the south 50% of the names). Only the most popular survived. OE stnas > ME stnesOE naman > ME nmenOE hs > ME hs, hses, hsenOE bc > ME beech, bookes, booken

The s ending was far more common in the north.In Middle French the accusative case form ends in s, to the French ear the s sounded plural. So this ending eventually prevailed (the form in which nouns were taken to English was the accusative case). Eventually the /es/ morpheme prevailed. All other endings are relics of the old declension system and are considered irregular: The en plural: oxen, children The mutation plurals: mice, feet, men The zero plurals: sheep, deer, fish The voicing of final fricatives: wolf wolves

ME; REDUCTION OF CASE ENDINGSCase is the formal encodement of semantic roles, denoting special, temporal and other relations. Semantic roles are determined by the valency of verbs. We have to determine the role of the entities you mention. Valency: each verb has multiple roles it can perform. For example, the verb give has the valency of three: kdo, komu, kaj.Three possible roles to be played = three valencies. sleep has the valency of 1, as you need only one person for ir. Depending on the valency, we differentiate verbs into four groups: Impersonal verbs: 0 arguments it rains Intransitive verbs: 1 argument she sleeps Monotransitive verbs: 2 arguments he loves her Ditransitive verbs: 3 arguments: he gave her a flower

Semantic roles:Agen/doer (grammatical subject), instrument (grammatical subject), recipient/benefactor (performs the syntactic function of the Indirect Object) and the patient (Direct Object). Assigning semantic roles are the word order, prepositions and in some cases morphemes, that is to say case endings. Panini, for example, identified 6 semantic roles in Sanskrit: agent, patient, means, recipient, source and locus.

The assignment of cases (or, the alignment of semantic roles) differs across languages in terms of which role is central: Nominative-accusative languages (Indo-European languages) Ergative-absolutive languages (Basque, Native American, Caucasian) Trigger languages

In Indo-European languages the subject is the least marked semantic role, making it the most cenrtral. Side note: In ergative languages subject is not marked when the verb is intransitive. But when verb is transitive, the object is not marked, making it central, as it does not have a case ending. Just the opposite as our Lovec je ubil leva. There it would be Lovca je ubil lev. and it would mean the same. In trigger languages the unmarked semantic role is the topic.

Old English was an inflectional language, which means that case endings merged with plural endings. Old English knew four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative. This means that it had 4 potential different endings + plural = 8 potential endings. The only one that survived is the singular genitive s.

In Middle English case endings were replaced with prepositional phrases and fixed word order: OE .hit licode Herode and eallum e him mid stonME and (it) pleside to Eroude and also to men restynge

In nouns, the only case that had survived in present-day English is the Saxon Genitive also called the Possessive Case.

There two theories as to why inflections were lost:I. One is all about sound changes, mainly about vowels in unaccented endings. But endings are not very prominent in any language and the system does not crumble. England at the time was multilingual and under the influence of other languages inflections were lost. II. First prepositional phrases started to expand for greater transparency and endings became redundant. Perhaps they were parallel. You need frequency.

-es (genitive singular, a-declension):OE es > ME [z] > NE [z] Marys > NE [s] Mats > NE [z] Bruces

From late OE spreading to all masculine, all neuter, all feminine and plural nounsThe Rule of the Apostrophe: -s is the same as for plural, making it ambiguous. Apostrophe is usually loss of a sound. Since 1650 it has been used in the singular and in the plural since 1780. cows added in 18th century. There is no vowel loss. The apostrophe is there just to show visually the genitive and has nothing to do with pronunciation. Why were they OK with the same ending for plural and genitive? The use of this ending underwent great changes. There is an alternative: the of-phrase. s is restricted to humans, expressing possession. You do not mistake tables and Marys out of context, because the use is restricted. And some verbs simply require genitive.

In pronouns, the old case forms have been preserved: Old English genitive forms have been preserved as possessive pronouns. Old English dative forms have been preserved as the objective case form. Old English accusative forms have been preserved as objective case in 3rd person

REFERENCE: SPECIFIC VS. NON-SPECIFIC

In Slovene we do not make a distinction. We can do it, but we do not have to. In Old English the use of determiners was not obligatory or regulated. Today we have to decide between a and the. In Old English this reference of the nominal phrase was encoded through:

I. The use of 2 different declensions of adjectives:(sum) gd mann (se) gda mann .

II. The use of of n, sum (non-specific). n mann ws eardiende on Israhla ode a man lived in Israel... nim sume tigelan take a tabletTodays pronunciation is so different because usually you say the numeral in a more emphatic way and the article is anaccented.

OE n > ME n, wn, wn > NE wn, wun > [wn] oneOE n > ME an, a(n) > NE [n], [] an, a

A nick name < ME an ke nme -> NE [en ik neim]An adder < a n|adderAn apron < a n|apron

NOTE: Exam question: How do you explain this to a pupil?

III. The use of demonstratives (specific) masc. sg. fem. sg. neut. sg. pl.N. sesotG. esreesraD. mre mmA. one t

lc ra e s mn word eher and wyrc bi gelc m wsan were e his hs ofer stn etimbrode.ME the > NE [], [i:] the

the origin of the definite article is a set of demonstratives meaning thatFrom the Middle English period on, the use of the article spread; From ME on, no more agreement within NP!

In Old English specifying reference was not obligatory. In New English we use articles, when we understand what they mean we can more easily decide between one or the other.

Language is not about the rules, but about the se.

The that (specific) show some contrast between this one and something else also lurking around. Singling something out. This is the function of definitive articles and demonstratives with specific reference. All the changes happened in Middle English period because the language was completely restructured. The more frequently you say something, the weaker it gets.

VERBAL CATEGORIES

A verb, we can say, is a noun that gets in motion. It changes, gets a temporal reference and you also need somebody to do it. The Encodement of Verbal Categories:The Person:We always need somebody to do it, otherwise there is no verb and no meaning. We have to connect the name/static notion of the doer to the verb. We required the agent. The personal ending is the most economical way to express it: he does it. It can sometimes be also morphological. Personal ending is the agreement of the verbal form with the subject. In English this is shown with the obligatory subject and we have only one personal ending: -(e)s.The person is a deictic reference to the participant in an event: the speaker, the addressee, none of the two Deixis: refers to the phenomenon, wherein understanding the meaning of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. A deictic word = semantic meaning is fixed, but the denotational meaning varies depending on time and/or place.

Personal pronounsPersonal endings: Agreement of the verbal form within the subject. The only personal ending in New English is (e)s in the 3rd person singular or the present indicative. Old English present tense (indicative): wrt-e wrt-awrt-estwrt-ePersonal pronouns express 1st and 2nd person, whereas a nominal phrase is preferred fot the 3rd person. grem (personal ending) VS I go (pronoun + verb)He goes we see that a formal subject is needed. Ending is only agreement, repeated information (3rd person singular + present tense + indicative).In New English the person is explicitly expressed with the nominal phrase, the it of which can be a noun or a pronoun. New English has only one personal ending. Old English: (e), -t (in contracted forms) remains in ME as (e)th, but gradually it is replaced with es from the north.OE es > ME []s, [][z] > NE [s], [z], [z] (All of these are allomorphes)

Where are the other personal endings?1st person was lost through regular sound change. But this is not the only reason, as there had to be other factors, since there is never just one. 2nd person ending was not lost through sound change, but in Middle English under French influence people started addressing each other in plural. We come across est only as agreement with thou (replaced with ye/you) English, motherfucker, dost though speaketh it?!Plural: a was replaced with en in Middle English, which was subsequently lost (via regular change). If personal endings disappeared, they had to be dispensable, because for complete loss of something like that there has to be a reason. Rule: Personal pronouns are obligatory. The ending is no longer enough. In Middle English transparency was much more important than economy. Even dummy it is obligatory.

SubjunctiveGod save the queen!The subjunctive mood had only two ending in Old English: -e for the singular and en for the plural. Both were lost in Middle English (via regular sound change).

Various theories are true They can have proof in literature. Not one is the whole truth. Speculations are common and necessary, but some are more convincing than others.

The History of Tense EncodementTense is the system of encoding mandatory temporal information.

Modern English: Regular verbs: base + dental suffix (-d, -t, -ed) Irregular verbs: vowel alternation, same form Not a single formula for encodement of the past tense The sems in present and perfect are different

Old English knew two formal tenses: preterite and present (non-preterite). The central point is now, which is when I speak. Time is divided with reference to the moment of speaking. Tense is the obligatory reference, it is expressed every single time. In pidgin/creole languages there is no formal tense. They do distinct it but it is not obligatory. In pidgin aspect is much more important. The form of the verb was marked to make sure that the addressee knows something already happened, or is still going on, or will happen. Now + everything after it is included in present tense. Temporal division is the most important division. If something survives, it has to be this one.

Present tense: base form (+ personal endings)Preterite tense: the marking depended on the form of the verb (somewhat similar to past simple). Preterite can be expressed with an adverbial, but you have to repeat the information in the verbal phrase. We know four types of verbs: strong, weak, preterite present and anomalous.

Regular verbs < Weak verbs (poor as far as contrastiveness is concerned)They are a Germanic formation: the dental preterite. They have only one stem, the present stem and the preterite tense is marked with the dental suffix. Tense is encoded in the dental suffix:OE -ede, -ode > ME []d[] > NE [d], [t], [d] played, worked, embeddedhow do we know they were germanic formations? Less than 200 today, OE 364, very frequently used!! Some forgotten (being replaced)The origin of the dental suffix is the same as the one of the verb do.

IRREGULAR VERBS:1) OE strong verbs (360 examples, verbs that go way back to IE parent language)2) OE weak verbs, subsequent sound changes

Strong verbsWhat is typical for them is Indo-European vowel gradation.If you take IE that are somehow related/semantically similar (consonants the same, different vowels) -> preserved in some languagesGradation (ablaut) is alteration of vowels in the stems of related words or different grammatical forms of the same words.

*e~ *o~ *~ *~ *-

The preterite forms of Germanic verbs from Indo-European perfect forms: IE present stem: accented, the vowel *e -> the basic vowel IE perfect stem: unaccented, the vowel reduced (dynamic accent -> you pronounced unaccented with a lower voice/tone) or changed (accent can be a grammatical instrument, ne, en) in the direction of *o (pitch accent)

Present stem:IE *writ > Germ. *writ- > OE writ- >ME writ- > NE [rait] write

Perfect stem:IE *wroit- > Germ. *wrait- > OE wrt > ME wrt > NE [reut] wroteIE *writ- > Germ. *writ- > OE writ- > NE [riten] written

FROM OE TO NE:But, during the transition from Old English to New English: Many strong verbs became weak/regular helpen healp - geholpen > helped helped helped The classes are no longer transparent Vowel patterns no longer consistent with the OE classes sprecen sprc gesprecen > speak spoke - spoken standen std gestanden > stand stood stood swingan swang geswunged > swing swung swung Many weak verbs became irregular due to different sound changes

OE cpan cpte gecptME kpen kepte ykeptNE [ki:p] [kept] [kept]

OE rdan rddeME rden reddeNE [ri:d] [red] read, readME casten cast-teNE [ka:st] [ka:st] sometimes two variants still exist

Periphrastic tenses common in OE, but their use not consistent with their modern eng. Functions:

a) Bon/wesan + present participle endeFrom 16th century on the use of expanded tenses spread from the north, since 18th century in the function of progressive tenses [green]

b) Bon/wesan/habban + past participlehabban with transitive, bon/wesan with intransitive verbs the meaning of the construction not necessarily perfective, but definitely hinted at.

In ME, the auxiliary HAVEN spread to intransitive verbs, and the past participle lost its adjectival properties. The use became consistent with the function of perfect tenses.

c) Willan/sculan + infinitiveAfter the year 1200 SHALL 'to be obligated' and WILL 'to want' lost some of their modal meaning and started to be used for future time reference.

In the 18th century WILL reported as expressing simple futurity in the 2nd and 3rd person, volition in the 1st person; shall reported as expressing simple futurity in the 1st person, obligation in 2nd and 3rd