Article. General notion

1.2 The historical development of the English articles. The definite article

The infinitive in Northumbrian often loses its final -n and ends in -a: drinca 'drink', sinza 'sing'. The 1st person singular present indicative ends in -u, -o (for West-Saxon -e): ic drincu 'I drink', ic sinzo 'I sing'. The 2nd person singular present indicative and the 2nd person singular past indicative of weak verbs often ends in -s (for West-Saxon -si): pu drinces 'thou drinkest', pu lufodes 'thou lo-vedst'. This means that the initial consonant of the pronoun 'pu did not join on to the verb forms. The 3rd person singular present indicative also, often ends in -s: he drinces 'he drinks'. The plural indicative present often takes the ending -as for West-Saxon -ap: hia drincas 'they drink'.cause of this spread of the -s-ending is not clear. It may have been partly influenced by the form is of the verb wsan.1st participle sometimes has the suffix -ande (for West-Saxon -ende). This is due to Scandinavian influence.plural present indicative of the verb wesan is arun (for West-Saxon sind).strong verbs become weak in Northumbrian. Thus class I verbs: stizan 'ascend' has stizede; zripan 'catch' zripede, hrinan 'touch' hrinade; class II verbs: reocan 'smell' has reohte, supan 'taste' supede; class III: bindan 'bind' has binde, drinzan 'insist' drinzde, swinzan an 'swing' swinzde, war pan 'throw' worpade, strxz-dan 'sow' strx^de, frejnan 'ask' fre^nade; class VI verbs: hebban 'lift' has hefde; class VII verbs: slsepan 'sleep' has slsepte, ondrsedan 'dread' ondnedde, sceadan 'divide' sccadade.these phenomena show that in Northumbrian a reduction of inflections was taking place in the ОС period already. This was probably partly due to Scandinavian influence.and head word.attribute usually precedes its head word, e. g. enzlisc zewrit 'English text', onzemanz oрurum mistlicum and manizfealdum bisum 'among other various and manifold affairs', hu zesжlizlica tida 'what happy times', se foresprecena hunzur 'the above-mentioned famine', ealle орrе bec 'all other books', жfter forрyrnendre tide 'after the passing time'. However, a numeral attribute may follow its head word, e. g. his suna twezen 'his two sons', рone naman anne 'the name alone'; also рa bee ealle 'all the books'.attribute often follows its head word when used in direct address: wine mm 'my friend', fre-drihten min 'my lord', Beowulf leofa 'dear Beowulf. An attribute consisting of the pronoun se and an adjective also follows its head word: Sidroc eorl se alda 'earl Sidroc senior'.genitive attribute usually precedes its head word: para cyninza zetruman 'the kings' troops', Norрmanna land 'the Northmen's land', Seaxna peod 'the Saxons' people', monizra manna mod 'many people's mood'. But sometimes it comes after its head word: on oрre healfe pжre ea 'on the oilier side of the riverstudying the declension of substantives in ME, we have to consider the Southern dialects, on the one hand, and the Midland and Northern, on the other.the Southern dialects, distinction between genders and between strong and weak declensions was to some extent preserved, but differences between various types of strong declension were obliterated. Later, distinction of genders was weakened in connection with the development of the definite article, which lost its declension altogether.