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This page covers themorphological andsyntactic properties of Middle English verbs. For information on how to organise verb entries, seeWiktionary:Middle English entry guidelines#The verb.
Because Middle English is not a single, homogenous language, there was plenty of variation and change in the verbal system across time and space. Unless otherwise noted, the verbal system covered here and given in entries represents the language ofChaucer: London Middle English of the late 1300s and the early 1400s.
The Middle English verbal system displays a transition from thesynthetic nature of Old English (already simplified compared to more archaic Germanic languages such asOld High German andGothic) to the moreanalytic nature of the Modern English system.
As with other Germanic languages, the verbs of Middle English are conventionally grouped into four broad classes (though any given verb may belong to more than one class due to variation in its conjugation):
Weak verbs are the "regular" verb type in Middle English (though there are irregular weak verbs). The vast majority of verbs, including almost all formations from nouns and borrowings, are weak, and most of those are of one type (verbs ending in-ed). Unlike with strong verbs, the three weak verb classes inherited from Old English have become confused and are no longer recognisable. As a result, weak verbs are better classified into five principal types, though many verbs vary between two types. What type a verb belongs to is determined by its past suffix:
Strong verbs form their past through modification of a verb's stem vowel. Some weak verbs also undergo changes in the stem vowel, but in strong verbs, this change reflectsIndo-European ablaut. Middle English retains the seven classes that comprised the strong verb system in earlier Germanic languages, each with their own stem vowel alternations. Verbs influencing verbs of different classes, phonetic changes, and levelling within paradigms, each of which may or may not occur within any given member of a class, have led to the classes starting to lose their coherence (a process that continues in modern English). However, as a whole, strong verbs have remained a coherent category, with unique features like their characteristic vowel alternations, past participles in-en, and lack of the second-person suffix-est in the past.
While a few weak verbs have become strong, the general tendency is for lesser-used strong verbs to become weak. Similarly, the tendency is to borrow verbs as weak; the only borrowed strong verbs are those which bear a strong resemblance to extant strong verbs (e.g.striven) or which are strong in the (Germanic) source language (e.g.taken). This means strong verbs tend to form a more archaic layer of vocabulary than their weak counterparts.
Preterite-present verbs form their present from endings that other verbs use to form their past (hence their name); this means that unlike strong or weak verbs, they usually have a different vowel in the present singular than they do in the infinitive. Their past forms are formed like a weak verb's, though they may sometimes have anablaut vowel that is distinct from the infinitive and the present. In Middle English, the preterite-presents are subject to increasing influence from strong and weak verbs; the alternations between the present singular and infinitive vowels tend to be leveled, and most acquire weak past participles on the model of their weak past. The class only retains its coherence due to the conspicuous lack of the third-person ending-th (or-s in some dialects), but even that is occasionally lost.
As well as their inflectional distinctiveness, preterite-presents are also syntactically unusual; most of them aremodal verbs orauxiliary verbs (those that aren't tend to become weak verbs), and they often lack certain forms (i.e. they are "defective verbs").
There are less than 20 preterite present verbs; the principal ones arecunnen,douen,durren,moten,mowen,schulen,tharen andwiten. At an early stageunnen was lost, whileowen became a weak verb later in the Middle English period. There is one borrowed preterite-present:mone, from Old Norse (its native cognatemonen is a weak verb in Middle English, despite having a preterite-present origin).
Also known as "irregular verbs", these verbs play important grammatical roles (for instance, all of them function as eithermodal verbs orauxiliary verbs) and do not easily fit into one of the other conjugational classes. All of them except fordon andwillen are suppletive, meaning that they historically come from a conflation of multiple distinct verbs.willen is not easily distinguishable from a preterite-present in Middle English, but is placed in this class as it has a different historical origin.
In Middle English, there are just four anomalous verbs:been,don,gon andwillen.
Middle English saw little change from Old English with respect to verb conjugations; it continued to display a system typical of the Germanic languages. Some of the major differences are the merger of vowels in unstressed syllables, the levelling of manyablaut alternants, and the gradual weakening of final-(e)n to-(e) in the infinitive, plural, and past participle. Verbs inflect for the following parameters:
Additionally, there is an infinitive, a present participle, and a past participle (see below).
However, there is a high degree ofsyncretism; not all possible combinations of parameters have a unique form. In particular, plurals, subjunctives, or imperatives are unmarked for grammatical person, and with a few exceptions, first-person singulars and plurals lack a distinction between the indicative and subjunctive. These rules do not apply for all dialects; but the general trend towards syncretism remains valid.
It should also be noted that the plural form, in conjunction withye/you, can be used as a formal second-person singular, especially in Late Middle English. Specifically, it is used when one wishes to display politeness and respect, including towards superiors and other individuals which one is societally obligated to show deference to.
The paradigm of the strong verbsingen,singe is shown below.
The first-person indicative singular is usually formed with-e; later on, this may be elided, while the second-person is formed with-est and the third-person takes-eth. In Old English, some verbs just took-st and-th, but the majority of these were regularised to-est and-eth in Middle English. In the later language, there is a tendency to syncopate the vowel in the ending, resulting in the return of-st and-th. Old English also sometimes hadi-umlaut in the second- and third-person singular. This is only retained in irregular verbs, if at all. Late in the period,-es tends to replace-eth as the third-person ending, spreading south from the North (eventually becoming Modern English-s).
The indicative plural is formed with-en; replacing expected-eth, most likely because of levelling from the past indicative, subjunctive, and preterite-present verbs likecunnen,schulen, etc. Especially in Late Middle English, the final-en is reduced to-e or dropped entirely. In a few irregular verbs (mostly preterite-present verbs), the plural has a different stem from the singular.
As with the 1st-person indicative, the subjunctive singular is formed with-e; this tends to drop off later on, just as with the indicative. As mentioned above, the subjunctive plural is identical to the indicative plural (except for the verbbeen; its pluralaren/are is only an indicative).
The imperative singular was historically just the bare verbal stem, but was increasingly levelled to the form of the subjunctive. The imperative plural, which originally had an ending-eth, also tended to have its ending replaced by that of the subjunctive in later Middle English.
The formation of the past is dependent on the conjugation type, as mentioned above. However, a few general observations can be made:
The Middle English infinitive ending was usually either-en (inherited from Old English-an,-ian),-e (fromapocope of-en), or a zero ending (further apocope). Certain verbs ending with a vowel had or could have a contracted ending in-n; verbs ending inl orralso sometimes received such an ending. The frequency of infinitival endings without-n steadily increased during the Middle English period; by the end of the period, infinitives with-n were almost nonexistent.
Several endings were utilised to mark the present participles of verbs; they varied according to location and date. Early on, the most common were-ende (Midlands),-and (Northern), and-inde (Southern). These later developed into-inge/-ynge in the Midlands and South, giving rise to our Modern English present participle in-ing (Northern-and survives in altered form in a few words likeblatant,flippant, andwanion). Consequently,-inge is the default used by the{{enm-verb|stem=}} template.
Like the finite past forms, the past participle form depends on the verb's conjugational pattern. Weak verbs form the past participle with a dental ending-d ort. This is historically distinct from the finite past ending, but comes to be associated with it. However, strong verbs form the past participle with a nasal ending-en. This may be reduced to-e or zero, but this reduction occurs less often than in the infinitive or plural forms. Preterite-present and anomalous verbs may form their past participle either like a weak verb or a strong verb. Verbs can also optionally take a prefixy- (akin to Old Englishġe-), though a minority of verbs, including those which are already prefixed, do not permit it.
Verbal morphology varies to some degree between the various dialects of Middle English; here, the unique morphological features of the Northern and Southern dialects are discussed (the Midlands is treated as a baseline).
Southern Middle English retains the-aþ present plural ending of Old English as-eþ, and tends to retain they- prefix of the past participle to a greater degree. The-ian ending of Old English class 2 weak verbs is retained as-ie and extended freely to loanwords. However, becausey- serves as a marker of the past participle, the final-n of past participles is often lost. The usual present-participle ending is-ende, but-ynge penetrates the South later, as it did the Midlands.
In Northern Middle English, the influence ofOld Norse is easily discernible. For instance, the infinitive alternatively employs the use of the particleat (e.g. "at sing") similar to Old Norse (cf.að syngva). Additionally, the tendency to maintain a strong final-en of the past participle (cf. Old Norse-inn), use of the present participle-and (cf. Old Norse-andi), and the second-/third-person present indicative ending-es can all be traced to Scandinavian origin.
Unlike in the past participle, the final-n of plurals and infinitives was lost at a relatively early stage (cf. the lack of-n in the equivalent Old Norse forms);-e was then elided as well, meaning that the past plural, the indicative, the (both present and past) first-person singular, and the subjunctive have a zero ending. The usual Northern present plural is not the-en/-e of the Midlands or the-eth of the south, though; instead,-es is often extended from the second-/third-person singular. This-es plural ending is not present in the subjunctive or the past as-es is absent from the corresponding singular forms.
Another prominent characteristic of the Northern verbal system is the levelling of irregular forms, no doubt due to the spread of-es and loss of final-en and-e resulting in there being less distinct inflectional categories to spread over. For instance,can, levelled from the present, is found instead of the infinitivecunnen, and(I/Ik) is sometimes replaces(I/Ich) am.
Middle English continued to distinguish between the use ofbe andhave in perfect tense formations, withbe (Middle Englishbeen) being used when movement or change in state is concerned, andhave (Middle Englishhaven) for all other cases. For instance, "Summer has arrived" is renderedSomeris ycomen, while "I have eaten" isIchhave eten.
The subjunctive is used much more extensively than in Modern English; for instance, in hypothetical phrases withyif/if, subjunctive, not indicative, forms are usually used (if sche ete "if she eats").
Germanic verb on Wikipedia.Wikipedia