Joseph Wright

“ The old ja-stems, as lære (OHG. lāri) , infl. lærer, empty; dünne, thin, enge, narrow, grüene, green, niuwe, new, reine, pure, schœne, beautiful, senfte, soft, wilde, wild, and many others, including the present participles of strong and weak verbs. The ja-stems only differ from the a-stems in having -e in the uninflected form and umlaut in the stem-syllable when it is capable of it. ”

“ CHAPTER VI VERBS § 72. The MHG. verb has the following independent forms:—one voice (active) , two numbers, three persons, two tenses (present and preterite) , two complete moods (indicative and subjunctive, the latter originally the optative) , besides an imperative which is only used in the present tense; two verbal nouns (the present infinitive, and the gerund, generally called the inflected infinitive) , a present participle with active meaning, and one verbal adjective (the past participle) . ”

“ The MHG. verbs are divided into two great classes:—Strong and Weak. The strong verbs form their preterite (originally the perfect) and past participle by means of ablaut (§ 12) . The weak verbs form their preterite by the addition of the syllable -te, and their past participle by means of a t-suffix. The strong verbs were originally further sub-divided into reduplicated and non-reduplicated verbs. The reduplication had, however, entirely disappeared in the oldest period of the language. The non-reduplicated verbs are divided into six classes according to the six ablaut-series (§ 12) . ”

“ The verbs of this class belong to the fourth ablaut-series (§ 12) . They include those strong verbs which have a liquid or a nasal before or after the stem-vowel, and a few others, thus:—
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And similarly schërn, to shear, schrëcken, to frighten, sprëchen, to speak, vlëhten, to plait, zëmen (p.p. also gezëmen) , to be befitting, stëchen, to prick, trëffen (p.p. troffen) , to hit; dreschen, to thrash, leschen, to be extinguished, see § 11, 1. komen (OHG. quëman) , to come, kume, quam, quāmen, komen; on other forms of this verb, see § 36. ”

“ Ein follows the strong declension, when used as a numeral. The dat. einme is generally contracted to eime (§ 9, 3) . When ein is used in the sense of alone, it follows the weak declension. On the inflexion of ander, second, see § 55. Zwei and drī are declined as follows:—
§ 64. The other cardinals up to twelve are sometimes inflected; when such is the case the endings are:—
hundert and tūsent are neuter nouns. ”

“ Nouns ending in the fortis p, t, c, or f (= Germanic f) regularly change the fortis to lenis in the inflected forms, as korp, basket, walt, wood, slac, blow, brief, letter, gen. korbes, waldes, stages, brieves.
§ 45. The old consonant stems vater, father, bruoder, brother, often remain uninflected in the singular, as gen. vater, bruoder beside vaters, bruoders (cp. § 9, 2) . In the plural they take umlaut, as veter, brüeder. ”

“ Like kil are declined all monosyllabic masculine nouns having a short stem-vowel and ending in -l or -r (§ 9, 1) .
Like engel are declined masculine polysyllabic nouns ending in -el, -em, -en, -er, when their stem-syllable is long, as mantel, mantle, ātem, breath, morgen, morning, acker, field. Those in -em, -en generally retain the e in the dative plural. Polysyllabic nouns with short stem-syllables fluctuate between the retention or loss of the e, as gen. sing. vogeles or vogels, dat. sing, and nom. acc. pl. ”

“ In others the vowel fluctuated between the full vowel and e, as in -isch beside -esch; -ic (= OHG. -ag, and -ī̆g) beside -ec; superlative of adjectives -ist (= OHG. -ist) beside -est (= OHG. -ōst) ; -sal beside -sel. Beside the full forms -līch, -rīch occurred the shortened forms -lich, -rich.
The OHG. endings of the present participle -anti, -enti, -ōnti, ēnti regularly became -ende, but -ant occurs in a few old participles which had become nouns, as heilant, Saviour, wīgant, warrior, vīant beside vīent (vīnt) , fiend, 8 enemy. ”

“ In MHG. the double consonants in verbs were often simplified through the levelling out of forms which regularly had a single consonant, e.g. regular forms were: vremmen, to perform, sing. vremme, vremes (t) , vremet, pl. vremmen, vremmet, vremment, pret. vremete, p.p. gevremet, then the stem-form with single m was levelled out into all the forms, and similarly with many other verbs, as denen, to stretch; seln, to hand over; weln, to choose; wenen, to accustom; legen beside lecken (leggen) , to lay; and the strong verbs biten, to beg; ligen beside licken (liggen) , to lie down. ”

“ The weak and strong forms are used in the same manner as in Mod. HG. dirre, this, is followed by the weak or strong form; aller, all, usually by the strong. The strong or weak form can be used after pronouns, as ich armer or ich arme, I poor ... In the vocative the weak form without the article is used, as guoten liute, (ye) good people. When the same adjective refers to nouns of different gender, it is put in the neuter plural.
ein and the possessive pronouns are followed by the 77 strong form in the Nom. and Acc. singular; by the strong or weak form in the pl. and Gen. and Dative singular. ”

“ This explains why strong verbs belonging to the fourth (§§ 12, 82) and fifth (§§ 12, 83) ablaut-series have i throughout the present singular, and similarly in verbs belonging to the third (§§ 12, 81) series with ë in the infinitive, as
20 § 15. u, followed originally by an ā̆, ō̆, or ē in the next syllable, became o when not protected by a nasal + consonant or an intervening ī̆ or j; hence the interchange between u and o in the preterite plural and past participle of verbs belonging to the second ablaut-series (§§ 12, 78) , as bugen (OHG. bugum) , we bent, p.p. gebogen (OHG. gibogan) ”

“ A double accusative is required not only after lēren, to teach, but also after hëln, verhëln, to conceal, verdagen, verswīgen, to keep secret.
§ 101. Dative. ruofen, to call, and schirmen, to protect, take the dative. The dative is often used adverbially: allenthalben, on all sides, wīlen (t) , formerly, &c.
§ 102. Genitive. The genitives hande, slahte, leie = manner are used adverbially: maneger hande, slahte, or leie, in many ways, manifoldly.
The gen. is used in combination with the comparative of adjectives, as dicker eines dūmes, thicker by the breadth of a thumb. ”

“ The former formed their preterite in -ta, and the latter in -ita; and similarly in the inflected form of the past participle. In MHG. all the unaccented vowels i, e, a, o, u, ī, ē, ō regularly fell together in e (§ 7) , so that the old distinction between the endings of the three classes of verbs was to a great extent obliterated. The OHG. verbs with a short stem-syllable belonging to Classes II and III came in MHG. to be inflected entirely like sub-division (b) of Class I; and those with a long stem-syllable mostly came to be inflected like sub-division (a) of Class I, see §§ 9, 2, 92. ”

“ In jugent (OHG. jugund, pl. jugundi) , youth, gen. dat. jugende beside jugent, pl. jugende, the original -i being in the third syllable did not cause umlaut in the stem-syllable; and similarly tugent, valour.
hant, hand, originally belonged to the u-declension, which explains forms like gen. sing, and plural hande beside hende, dat. pl. handen beside henden. The old gen. plural has been preserved in NHG. allerhand, and the dat. plural in abhanden, beihanden, vorhanden, zuhanden. ”

“ Feminine names of persons ending in a consonant take -e in the genitive, dative and accusative, but occasionally remain uninflected throughout.
CHAPTER IV ADJECTIVES A. The Declension of Adjectives. 1. The Strong Declension.
§ 55. The MHG. adjectives are declined as strong or weak. They have three genders, and the same cases as nouns. The endings of the strong declension are partly nominal and partly pronominal. The nominal endings are: the accusative feminine singular, as blinde like gëbe (§ 48) ; and the genitive singular masculine and neuter, as blindes like tages, wortes (§§ 43, 46) . ”

“ It is likewise met with in MHG. words which originally had an i in the third syllable, the vowel of the second syllable having become i by assimilation, as frävele (OHG. frafali) , bold, pl. mägede (OHG. magadi) , maids, pl. zäher (e) (OHG. zahari) , tears. See § 2, Note.
o > ö: Although ö, the umlaut of o, is common in MHG. and still commoner in NHG., yet all words containing this umlaut are really new formations due to levelling or analogy, because primitive Germanic u (§ 15) did not become o in OHG. when followed by an ī̆ or j in 13 the next syllable. Examples are: boc, he-goat, beside dim. ”

“ Strong verbs, which have a medial v (f) , d, h, s in the present, have respectively b, t, g (ng) , r in the second person sing. pret. indicative, the preterite plural indicative, the pret. subjunctive and the past participle. ”

“ From the twelfth century onwards the umlaut of a also occurs—often beside forms without umlaut—in words containing the consonant combinations which prevented umlaut from taking place in OHG., as pl. mähte (OHG. mahti) , powers; geslähte (OHG. gislahti) , race, generation; wähset (OHG. wahsit) , he grows; wärmen (OHG. warmen, older *warmjan) , to warm; Upper German älter (OHG. altiro) , older ”

“ MHG. öu (eu) , as OHG. loubir, leaves, loufil, runner = MHG. löuber, löufel.
uo = (1) MHG. uo, as OHG. bruoder, brother, muoter, mother, stuont, I stood = MHG. bruoder, muoter, stuont.
uo = (2) MHG. üe, as OHG. gruoni, green, fuoȥi, feet, = MHG. grüene, vüeȥe.
Ablaut (Vowel Gradation) .
§ 12. By ablaut is meant the gradation of vowels both in stem and suffix, which was chiefly caused by the primitive Indo-Germanic system of accentuation. See the Author’s Historical German Grammar, § 23.
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The vowels vary within certain series of related vowels, called ablaut-series. ”

“ The present participle with sīn is sometimes used as in English, see ‘Arme Heinrich,’ l. 24.
§ 107. Voice. The present and preterite passive are expressed by wërden and the p.p., and the corresponding perfect tenses by sīn and the p.p.
§ 108. Negation. Negation in sentences is expressed by ne (en, n) before the verb, and niht after it: ër enist guot, he is not good. niht is frequently omitted, especially after the preterite presents, the verbs wellen, lān, sentences containing negative pronouns or adverbs, and in subordinate sentences. ”

“ Umlaut of ou did not take place in the combination ouw = OHG. ouw, auw, West Germanic aww, primitive Germanic awj, as frouwe (OHG. frouwa, prim. Germanic *frawjō-) , woman; ouwe (OHG. ouwa, auwia, prim. Germanic *a (ʒ) wjō-) , meadow; frouwen (OHG. frouwen, prim. Germanic *frawjan) , to rejoice, and similarly douwen, to digest, drouwen, to threaten, strouwen, to strew. Forms like fröuwen, döuwen, dröuwen, ströuwen were analogical formations due to the influence of the pres. second and third pers. singular and the preterite which regularly had umlaut ”

“ Dissyllabic adjectives ending in -e and containing a mutated stem-vowel change it to the corresponding unmutated vowel, when used as adverbs, as schœne (OHG. scōni) , beautiful, herte, hard, senfte, soft, süeȥe, sweet, swære, heavy: adv. schōne, harte, sanfte, suoȥe, swāre.
3. By adding -līche or -līchen to the adjective, as ganz, whole, vlīȥec, diligent: adv. ganzlīche (n) , vlīȥeclīche (n) .
4. The comparative and superlative degrees of adverbs are the same as the corresponding uninflected forms of the adjectives without umlaut:—
51 § 61. ”

“ After the analogy of forms with long stems it was also dropped in forms with short stems, as pl. nagel, nails, vogel, birds, beside nagele, vogele; wider beside widere (OHG. widaro) , wether, dat. sing. disem (e) , this, vadem (e) , thread, gen. vadem (e) s.
There was however a strong tendency in MHG. for the medial vowel to disappear in trisyllabic forms with long stems irrespectively as to whether they contained a liquid or a nasal, as market, market, gen. marktes ”

“ Upper German iu (OHG. io) before labials and gutturals, as liup, dear, tiuf, deep, siuch, sick, liugen, to tell a lie = liep, tief, siech, liegen.
öu (eu) is the umlaut of OHG. ou, as löuber, leaves, löufel, runner = OHG. loubir, loufil.
üe is the umlaut of OHG. uo, as grüene, green, güete, goodness, vüere, thou didst go = OHG. gruoni, guotī, fuori.
Unaccented Vowels and Umlaut.
§ 6. The two most characteristic differences between OHG. and MHG. are: (1) the spread of umlaut (§ 10) ; (2) the weakening and partial loss of vowels in unaccented syllables. ”

“ The genitive may be used predicatively:—sīt sī dës goteshūses sint, since they belong to the house of God; diu sorge ist mīn eines niht, I am not the only one who has sorrow.
Impersonal verbs often take the genitive: mich genüeget dës, that is enough for me ”

“ This interchange of consonants is called Verner’s Law, see OHG. Primer, §§ 72, 87:—
This law has, however, many exceptions in MHG. owing to levelling having taken place with the infinitive, 30 present indicative and preterite singular, as risen, gerisen beside rirn, gerirn.
The same interchange of consonants exists between strong verbs and their corresponding causative weak verbs, as līden, to go: leiten, to lead; hāhen, to hang: hengen, to hang (trans.) ; ge-nësen, to be saved: nern, to save; and in nouns, &c., as hof (gen. hoves) , court: hübesch, courtly ”