In Middle English and Early New English

Changes in the Principal Forms of Weak Verbs

The Development of Weak verbs

OE The number of weak verbs in OE by far exceeded that of strong verbs and was obviously

"growing. All the verbs, excluding strong verbs and minor groups were weak. Weak verbs

formed past tense and second participle by suffixes -d,-t. There were 3 classes of weak verbs.

ME The development of weak verbs in ME shows that they displayed a strong tendency to-

wards regularity and system. The infinitive endings -an\ian were weakened to -en. In ME

Class 3 did not exist. OE verbs of this class either joined the other classes of weak verbs or

became irregular. Class 2 verbs had - e -before the - d of the past suffix. Class 1 verbs did not

have.

Pnncipal forms	OE	ME	NE
	Class 1	Class 1
Inf. Past Part. 11	deman demde demed	demen deemde demed	deem deemed deemed
		Class 2
Inf. Past Part. 11	styrian slyrede styred	stiren stirede stired	stir stirred stirred
	Class 2
Inf. Past Part. II	locian locode locod	looken lookede looked	look looked looked

MnE Classification of weak verbs into 1 and 2 classes is no longer applicable to MnE. In ME

it was still possible to draw a distinction between the two classes according as the past tense

had or had not an -e- before the -d of the past suffix; in MnE, when the unstressed -e- disap-

peared in all cases, this distinction can no longer be upheld. The ME class 1 verb demen -

demde - demed and the ME class 2 verb hopen - hopede - hoped have quite similar forms in

MnE: deem - deemed - deemed [dim - di:md - di:md]; hope -hoped - hoped [houp - houpt -

houpt].

The unstressed vowel has been preserved after -d- and -t- only: end - ended - ended,

want - wanted - wanted.

Some weak verbs became strong in the MnE period. For example the OE verb hydan -

hudde - hyded 'hide', ME hiden - hidde - hidd, became a class 1 strong verb.

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