An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

began; accept; grace
g
.
ife in 
t
æ¯m men;
ond he¯o hine 
t
a¯ monade ond læ¯rde
t
æt he¯ worulha¯d
urge; instruct;
anforle¯te ond
secular life; renounce
munucha¯d onfe¯ng; ond he¯
t
æt wel 
t
afode.
monastic life; accept;
agree to
Ond he¯o hine in 
t
æt mynster onfe¯ng mid his go¯dum
monastery; with; goods;
ond hine g
.
e
t
e¯odde
receive
to g
.
esomnunge 
t
a¯ra Godes 
t
e¯owa ond heht hine læ¯ran
company; servant;
t
æt g
.
etæl
order ; teach; tale
t
æs ha¯lgan stæ¯res ond spelles.
holy; history; message
Ond he¯ eal
t
a¯ he¯ in g
.
ehyrnesse g
.
eleornian meahte
hearing; learn; could;
mid hine g
.
emyngade,*
remember
ond swa¯ swa¯ clæ¯ne ne¯ten eodorcende in 
t
æt swe¯teste le¯o
e
just like pure cattle
g
.
ehwerfde.
chewing cud;
sweetest song; turn
Ond his song ond his le¯o
e
wæ¯ron swa¯ wynsumu to
joyful; that
g
.
ehyranne 
t
ætte
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AN INTRODUCTION TO OLD ENGLISH
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seolfan 
t
a¯ la¯re¯owas æt his mu¯
e
e wreoton ond leornodon.
self; teacher ; voice;
write
*‘And everything he could learn through hearing he remembered in his head’
VERB FORMS
53
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5
Strong verbs
5.1 Present-day English
When we look at present-day English we find many verbs which pattern
in a very similar way to the weak verbs of Old English, even if there has
been some obvious simplification: for example there are no longer two
major classes, for they have merged together, so that an Old English class
1 verb cyssan ‘kiss’ and a class 2 verb such as lufian ‘love’, now pattern in
parallel.
On the other hand there are a number of verbs, other than any of
those I have discussed above, which do not show any of the distinguish-
ing features of a weak verb. In particular, these verbs do not have the
characteristic past tense inflection of the weak verbs and, furthermore,
they show an apparently arbitrary variation in their stem in order to
indicate their past tense and participle forms. Such is what we find in a
verb such as sing, with past tense sang and past participle sung.
In English today these verbs are often classed as irregular verbs, but
they are, in most cases, directly derivable from what are called the strong
verbs of Old English. This rather implies that what now seems to be
a rather unpredictable variation in the present-day language has not
always been so, and that, for example, the Old English verb singan ‘sing’
had a predictable variation in form. Our first task, therefore, will be to
analyse the state of affairs in Old English and then to see how that might
help us to understand the present-day variations also.
5.2 Ablaut
In heading this section of Chapter 5 with the term Ablaut, I am
conscious that this will look like a reference back to Umlaut. There is,
indeed, a distant similarity, but that is best ignored. I use the German
term because the equivalent English one, vowel gradation, is regrettably
clumsy.
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The best way to approach Ablaut is by starting with a present-day verb
like sing. I have already shown that this verb has three basic shapes, which
we can display as a simple paradigm: