History of the english language

Demonstrative Pronouns
There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: the prototype of NE that, which distinguished three genders in the sg and had one form for all the genders in the pi. and the prototype of this with the same subdivisions: ðes Masc., ðeos Fem., ðis Neut. and ðas pl. They were declined like adjectives according to a five-case system: Nom., Gen., Dat., Acc., and Instr. (the latter having a special form only in the Masc., Neut.sg).


Declension of sē, sēo, ðæt
Case Singular Plural
M N F All genders
Nom. sē, se ðæt sēo ða
Gen. ðæs ðæs ðære ðāra, ðæra
Dat. ðæm, ðām ðæm, ðām ðære ðām, ðæm
Acc. ðone ðæt ðā ðā
Instr. ðy, ðon ðy, ðon ðære ðæm, ðām
The paradigm of the demonstrative pronoun se contained many homonymous forms. Some case endings resembled those of personal pronouns, e.g. –m – Dat. Masc. and Neut. and Dat. pl; the element -r- in the Dat. and Gen. sg Fem. and in the Gen. pl. These case endings, which do not occur in the noun paradigms, are often referred to as "pronominal" endings (-m, -r-, -t).

The Old English Numeral

The Old English language preserves the system of declension only for numerals from 1 to 3. Here is the list of the cardinal numerals:

1 ān	20 twentig
2 twā	21 twentig ond ān
3 þrīe	30 þrītig
4 fēower	40 fēowertig
5 fīf	50 fīftig
6 six, syx, siex	60 siextig
7 seofon, syofn	70 siofontig
8 eahta	80 eahtatig
9 nigon	90 nigontig
10 tien, týn	100 hundtēontig, hund, hundred
11 endlefan	110 hundælleftig
12 twelf	120 hundtwelftig
13 þrīotīene	200 tū hund
14 fēowertīene	1000 þūsend
15 fīftīene	2000 tū þūsendu

1 ān is declined just like a strong adjective, can be only singular, but has masculine, neuter and feminine genders. It is the source of the future indefinite article 'a, an' in Modern English. So 'a house' in fact means "one house", here -n disappeared before a consonant.
2 twā:

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	twegen	tū, twā	twā
Genitive	twēgea, twēgra
Dative	twǣm, twām
Accusative	twegen	tū, twā	twā

No number can be changed for this numeral, and originally this numeral was dual, which seems natural.
3 þrīe:

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	þrīe, þrī, þrý	þrīo, þrēo	þrīo, þrēo
Genitive	þrīora, þrēora
Dative	þrīm
Accusative	þrīe, þrī, þrý	þrīo, þrēo	þrīo, þrēo

The numeral begen, bū, bā(both) is declined the same way astwāand is also dual.
Ordinal numerals use the suffix -taor-þa, etymologically a common Indo-European one (*-to-).

1 forma, fyresta	14 fēowertēoþa
2 ōþer, æfterra	15 fīftēoþa
3 þridda, þirda	16 sixtēoþa
4 fēorþa	17 siofontēoþa
5 fīfta	18 eahtatēoþa
6 siexta, syxta	19 nigontēoþa
7 siofoþa	20 twentigoþa
8 eahtoþa	30 þrittigoþa
9 nigoþa	40 fēowertigoþa
10 tēoþa	50 fīftigoþa
11 endlefta
12 twelfta	100 hundtēontiogoþa
13 þreotēoþa

The two variants for the word "first" actually mean different attributes: formais translated as "forward", andfyrestais "the farthest", "the first". Again double variants for the second nominal mean respectively "the other" and "the following".

Mainly according to Old English texts ordinal numerals were used with the demonstrative pronoun þā before them. This is where the definite article in'the first', 'the third' comes from.


OE Verb. Its categories.

The form-building devices were gradation (vowel interchange), the use of suffixes, inflections, and suppletion.The non-finite forms of the verb in Old English were the infinitive and two Participles. Participle I is formed by means of the suffix -ende added to the stem of the infinitive: writan - writende (to write - writing),sprecan - sprecende (to speak – speaking).Participle II expressed actions and states resulting from past action and was passive in meaning with transitive verbs, and rendered only temporal meaning of the past with the intransitive. Participle II was commonly marked by the prefix ʒe-, writan - writen, ʒewriten.The verb in Old English has the following categories: person, number, tense and mood.Number is a way of agreement of the predicate with the subject represented by the opposition of the singular and the plural. As dual number by that time was very seldom used.The category of person is represented by all the three persons, though this opposition is neutralised in many positions. Present Tense Singular has all the forms, whereas in plural the category is not shown.The category of mood was represented by the opposition of three moods - Indicative - Subjunctive - Imperative.The Indicative mood represents the action as a real fact. The Imperative expresses order, or request to a second person. The action expressed by Subjunctive mood is shifted from reality . It is usually implied condition, desire, obligation, doubt, uncertainty.The category of Tense was represented by the opposition past -nonpast or preterit - non-preterit. The current form for the non-preterite is the Present. The cases of use:the actual present, the “now”;in reference to a regular or habitual action;with future time reference; emphatic present to make the narration more vivid; historical present.

Strong Verbs are divided into seven classes. 1 ї— ā — i — i
wrïtan - wrāt - writon — writen (to write) ;rïsan - rās - rison - risen (rise). 2 ēo-ēa-u-o bēodan - bēad - budon - boden (to offer); clēofan - clēa f - clufon - clofen (to cleave). The verbs that had s after the root vowel had the change of the consonant : cēosan - cēas - curon - coren (to choose) .Some class II verbs have the vowel ū instead of the usual ēo : lūcan - lēac - lucon - locen (to lock). 3there are several variations of root vowels in this class of verbs.a) if nasal sound + another consonant followed the root vowel the gradation formula was:i - a(o) - u – udrincan - dranc - druncon - druncen (to drink); b) if / + another consonant followed the root vowel, then this formula was i/e - ea - u – o : helpan - healp - hulpon - holpen (to help);c) if r + consonant or h + consonant followed the root vowels then breaking in the first two forms changed the formula intoeo - ea - u – o : steorfan - stearf - sturfon — storfen (to die). 4The verbs of this class have only one consonant after the short root vowel, and it is a sonorant - r or I, in rare cases - m or n .The scheme of gradation is e - æ- ǣ - o: stelan - stæl – stǣlon - stolen (to steal). 5These verbs also have a short root vowel followed by only one consonant other than I, r or n and here the basic vowels are:e - æ - ǣ – e: sprecan - spræc - sprǣcon - sprecen (to speak).When the first sound was ӡ then diphthongization of e is observed and the forms of such verbs are: ӡiefan - ӡea f - ӡeafon -ӡiefen (to give). 6 a-ō-ō-a :faran - fōr - fōron - faren (to go)Here belong such verbs as wadan (walk), bacan ( b ak e), sceacan (shake). 7 ā-ē-ē-ā: hātan-hēt-hēton-hāten; ā-ēo- ēo-ā: cnāwan-cnēow- cnēowon- cnāwen.
Weak verbs , their past tense and Participle II were made by adding the-dental suffix -t- or -d- to the root morpheme. They are divided into three classes- depending on the ending of the infinitive, the sonority of the suffix and the sounds preceding the suffix. New verbs derived from nouns, adjectives and partly adverbs were conjugated weak: hors n (horse) —horsian w v 2 (supply with horses) .Borrowed verbs (though not very numerous in Old English) were also weak: Lat. signare — seʒnian (to mark with a sign). Classes : 1 The verbs of this class ended in -an (or -ian after r). Originally they had had a stem-forming suffix -i- that caused the mutation of the root vowel.Regular class I verbs have mutation of their root vowel , and the three basic forms of the verb end in:-a n / -ia n — de/ede/te – ed/-t-d: (nasjan —> ) nerian - nerede - nered (to save). When the suffix was preceded by a voiceless consonant, the suffix -d- changed into in the second participle both -t- and -ed are found: cēpan - cēpte - cēpt, cēped (to keep).If the stem ended in two consonants, the second being d or t, participle II of such verbs, can have variant endings - in -d, -t, or -ded, -ted: sendan - sende - send, sended (to send) .Irregular verbs of the 1st class of the weak verbs had mutated vowel only in the infinitive (salian —> ) sellan - sealde - seald (to give). 2 These verbs originally had the suffix -oia- in the infinitive; the root vowel is the same in all three forms. The absence of mutation in the infinitiveis due to the fact that the -i- (from -oja-) appeared at the time when the process of mutation was over. The suffix gave the vowel -o- in the past tense and in the infinitive. -ian - ode - od : macian - mac ode - macod (to make) . 3 The suffix -ai-, that determined the peculiarities of conjugation of the weak verbs of the third class in Old English is no lohger found. Some verbs of this class have doubled consonants in the Infinitive and the mutated vowels, which are accounted for by the presence of the element in some forms in Old English. -an-de-d: libban-lifde-lifd(to live).