Weak Verbs

The number of weak verbs in OE by far exceeded that of strong verbs. In fact, all the verbs, with the exception of the strong 119 verbs and the minor groups (which make a total of about 315-320 units) were weak. Their number was constantly growing since all new verbs derived from other stems were conjugated weak (except derivatives of strong verbs with prefixes). Among the weak verbs there were many derivatives of OE noun and adjective stems and also derivatives of strong verbs built from one of their stems (usually the second stem – Past sg), e.g.

Weak verbs formed their Past and Participle II by means of the dental suffix - d- or -t- (a specifically Germanic trait). In OE the weak verbs are subdivided into three classes differing in the ending of the Infinitive, the sonority of the suffix, and the sounds pre­ceding the suffix. The principal forms of the verbs in the three classes are given in Table 14, with several subclasses in Class I.

The main differences between the classes were as follows: in Class I the Infinitive ended in - an, seldom -ian (- ian occurs after [r]); the Past form had -de, -ede or -te; Participle II was marked by -d, -ed or - t. Some verbs of Class I had a double consonant in the Infinitive (Subclass b), others had a vowel interchange in the root, used together with suffixation (types e and f)).

Class II had no subdivisions. In Class II the Infinitive ended in -ian and the Past tense stem and Participle II had [o] before the dental suffix. This was the most numerous and regular of all the classes.

The verbs of Class III had an Infinitive in – an and no vowe before the dental suffix; it included only four verbs with a full con­jugation and a few isolated forms of other verbs. Genetically, the division into classes goes back to the differences between the derivational stem-suffixes used to build the verbs or the nominal stems from which they were derived.

The verbs of Class I, being i -stems, originally contained the element

[-i/-j] between the root and the endings. This [-i/-j] caused the palatal mutation of the root-vowel, and the lengthening of consonants which becomes apparent from comparing the verbs with related words. [-i/-j] was lost in all the verbs before the age of writing, with the exception of those whose root ende in -r (cf. styrian, dēman and temman in Table 14).

In the Past tense the suffix -i- was weakened to -e- after a short root-syllable (types (a), (b)) and was dropped – after a long one (types (c) and (d)); if the preceding consonant was voiceless the dental suffix was devoiced to [t]. Hence cēpan – cēpte. If the root ended in [t] or [d] with a preceding consonant the dental suffix could merge with the [t, d] of the root and some forms of the Past and Present tense became homonymous: thus sende was the form of the 1st p. sg of the Pres. Tense Ind. and Subj. and also the form of the Past Tense, 1st and 3rd p. sg Ind. and all the persons of the sg Subj. (cf. also restan – reste, wendan – wende, NE send, rest, wend).

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