The change from English as an
inflected language to a mostly analytic language occurred over a long period of
time. One of the main influencing factors of this change to an analytic
language was the interaction between the Anglo-Saxons and other cultures. Since
learning all the inflections of English was complicated for non-native
speakers, it simplified. For example, Old Norse was analytic and it was easier
for the Vikings to communicate using fewer inflections as described in Our Faire Englische Tung. There are several examples of ways in which
the language changed, and I will give a brief overview of these. One of the
major evolutions from Old English to Modern English is the simplifying of the
verb. In Old English, there were two main categories for verbs: strong verbs,
which changed the interior vowel of the stem word, and weak verbs, which added
endings to the stem. Strong verbs were divided into seven classes and weak
verbs into three. Over time, these inflectional aspects changed, as illustrated
by the Old English word “helpan,” which evolved into “help.” The different
forms of helpan were helpe, healp, hilpst, hulpe, hilpþ, helpaþ, hulpon, helpen,
help, helpende, and holpen. Today, there help only has the forms help, helped,
and helping. In addition to verbs, nouns also changed and the plural forms were
standardized. Some examples of this are stan/stanas, which turned into
stone/stones; nama/namen, which turned into name/names; scip/scipu, which
turned into ship/ships; sunu/suna, which turned into son/sons; and boc/bek,
which turned into book/books. As demonstrated above, many of the inflected
forms of English words have been greatly simplified and standardized, though not all of them such as man/men and foot/feet to name a couple. Today, English
cannot be classified as a purely analytic language because some endings do
change. There are eight remaining inflected parts (called morphemes) of English
remaining, which are plural, possessive,
comparative, superlative, 3rd Person singular present agreement, past tense,
past participle, present participle. In these ways, Old English has evolved many analytic aspects from its original inflected form.
| Masculine a declension |
|
armr (arm) |
hamarr (hammer) |
hęrr (a people) |
hęllir (cave) |
| Case |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| Nominative |
arm-r |
arm-ar |
hamar-r |
ham'r-ar |
hęr-r |
hęr-jar |
hęll-ir |
hęll-ar |
| Accusative |
arm |
arm-a |
hamar |
ham'ra |
hęr |
hęr-ja |
hęll-i |
hęll-a |
| Genitive |
arm-s |
arm-a |
hamar-s |
ham'ra |
hęr-jar |
hęr-ja |
hęll-is |
hęll-a |
| Dative |
arm-i |
ǫrm-um |
ham'r-i |
hǫm'r-um |
hęr-i |
hęr-jum |
hęll-i |
hęll-um |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse_morphology#Strong_nouns
| The Strong Noun Declension |
| Case |
Masculine |
Neuter |
Feminine |
| Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
| Nominative |
– |
-as |
– |
-u/– |
-u/– |
-a |
| Accusative |
– |
-as |
– |
-u/– |
-e |
-a, -e |
| Genitive |
-es |
-a |
-es |
-a |
-e |
-a |
| Dative |
-e |
-um |
-e |
-um |
-e |
-um |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_grammar#Strong_nouns
http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/go.php?D1=17&T1=brenna&H1=117
http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/go.php?T1=helpan&D1=23&H1=123&imageField.x=0&imageField.y=0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_French#Nouns
