simplification of adjective paradigms in eME

wa-, wō-stems in OE

In OE there was alternation in u/o/w throughout the paradigm of a handful adjectives including nearu (narrow) and ġearu (ready, prepared). According to Wright ¹⁰: "§ 435 ... w became vocalized to u (later o) when final and before consonants in prehistoric OE. (§ 265); whence masc. nom. sing., neut. nom. ace. sing, gearu from [PGmc] *garw-az, -an ... § 436. Like gearu are declined basu, beasu, purple; calu, bald; cylu, spotted; fealu, fallow; geolu, yellow; hasu, heasu, grey, tawny ; mearu, tender; nearu, narrow; salu, sealu, dusky, dark."

These adjectives had stem endings that fluctuated between <u> (or <o>) and <w> throughout the strong declension paradigm:

The paradigms for basu, calu, cylu, fealu, ġearu, ġeolu, hasu, mearu are similar.

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wa-, wō-stems in PC2 and Orm

Both PC2 and Orm have reflexes of OE nearu. PC2 has nareu sg strong while Orm has naru sg strong and narrwe pl. Lmn and AW mirror the PC2 form with nearow AW sg strong, nearewe AW sg weak, narewe Lmn sg weak.

Note that PC2 doesn't use the character <w>. The sound /w/ is routinely rendered as <u>. Given that the MED contains a few examples of strong singular forms with final <ew> (or <ow>), including AW nearow, the appropriate transcription of PC's final <eu> in eME is <ew>.

The reduction in complexity for the reflexes of adjective like nearu in eME, will produce a similar paradigm to that of gód (see above). If we follow Orm, the sole difference we can expect for this type is that in the strong singular, the final <-w> of the stem becomes a <-u> (in the absence of a following <e>). If we follow PC2, Lmn & AW on the other hand, the resulting paradigm will not differ at all from the standard paradigm:

In the next section I'll investigate the reflexes of wa-, wō-stem adjectives recorded in the MED prior to 1250, together with a few examples from later East Midland sources, e.g. Ch, before deciding the final shape of the paradigms in question, for both the core and optional eME grammar.

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wa-, wō-stems in the MED

The following is a list of extracts from the MED, one for each of the wa-, wō-stems found in OE (see above). These extracts focus on pre-1250 sources. I've inserted notes which I'll unpack in the following section.

basu, baswa

no MED entry

calu, calwa (caluw)

MED calwe

1230 Henricus..Willelmum le Calewe acc, weak (as expected) - name or term of address, NB -ewe; [1327 Gilbertus Calwe post-1250 but note weak (as expected)]

> ModE callow

cylu, cylwa (cylew)

no MED entry

MED related forculien darken by scorching

AW related forculet, forculiende not forcwul~ - supports kile as weak?

fealu, fealwa (fealewe)

MED falwe

Lmn ueldes falewe nom pl strong; Owl 1300 falew icumeþ of grene leue nom sg strong, NB -ew; [Ch falow nom sg strong, post-1250 but note -ow, twigges, falwe, rede and grene pl]

> ModE fallow

ġearo, ġearwa (ġearu, ġearowes)

MED yāre

VH 1150 gearewe acc pl? NB -ew; BH 1175 ȝearu nom sg strong; LH 1225 ȝaru nom sg strong; AW ȝarow nom sg strong, ȝarowe pl?; 1250 ȝeruh nom sg strong; Lmn ȝeærwe nom sg strong?, ȝarewe/ȝærewe pl, ȝæru/ȝaru/ȝare/ȝar nom sg strong; 1250 gere/gare nom sg strong; PC1 gare nom sg strong; Owl ȝarewe pl, ȝare pl; NB - removal stem alternation pre-1250; Ch yare pl

> ModE yare

ġeolu, ġeolwa (ġelewum, ġealewe)

MED yelwe

HA 1200 ᵹeoluwe blostma strong pl, NB -uwe; AW þenne is hit ȝeolow nom sg strong, NB -ow; LH 1225 þe ȝeolewe clað weak, NB -ewe; TH 1200 hire winpel … maked geleu mid saffran nom sg strong, NB -eu - cp PC2 nareu; LH 1225 ȝeluwe froggen pl, NB -uwe; 1175 Florentius: Geolofincg note -o where weak expected - combining form?; [Ch yelowe gooldes, nayles yelwe pl, post-1250 but note -owe]; 1159 Yolegreue note -e where weak expected - combining form?; 1221 Christina la Gelewe weak (as expected) - name, NB -ewe

> ModE yellow

hasu, haswa

no MED entry

MED related haswed dark in color, dusky,

ME *haswy, *hasi > ModE hawsey naut. > hazy?

mearu, mearwa (mearuwe)

MED meruw(e) no forms with stem vowel <a>

HA 1200 ᵹif þanne þe lichama mearuw si nom sg strong, NB -uw, hi beoð mearuwran cmp pl, ᵹenim þa wyrt swa mearwe pl acc; AW hwil ha beoð mearewe nom pl strong, NB -ewe

nearu, nearwa (nearewe, nearewum, nearuwe)

MED narwe

PC2 cæst þat was... nareu nom sg strong, NB -eu; Orm þatt illke child... wass leᵹᵹd inn an full naru cribbe (f acc) sg strong, note -u where -we might be expected for f acc but all cases are merged in nom, narrwe stiᵹhess pl (strong); PM 1175 Go we þane narewe pað acc sg weak, NB -ewe; Lmn i þon weie narewe (m acc) sg weak, NB -ewe; AW þe parlurs least & nearewest nom pl (weak?), NB -ew-, þet sterke dom... & se nearow nom sg strong (se = swá), NB -ow te nearewe nom sg? weak, NB -ewe, þah ȝe nearowe beon nom pl strong, NB -owe; 1250 þene neruwure ende of þe horne acc sg cmp weak, NB -uw-; [Ch This clyfte was so narw sg strong, NB -w, narwest sup]; Tristrem 1300 þe way was naru sg strong, NB -u

> ModE narrow

sealu, sealwa

MED salu

1400 salowe nom sg strong - earliest entry in MED

> ModE sallow

observations

What can we conclude from this?

1. Keep in mind that what we are looking for is either:
   1. <w> appearing at the end of the stem in a singular noun in a strong context, i.e. in the absence of a definite article, demonstrative adjective or possessive pronoun; or
   2. <w> dropped from a plural noun (in any context) or from a singular noun in a weak context, i.e. in the presence of a definite article, demonstrative adjective or possessive pronoun.
2. There is corroboration beyond PC2, AW and Lmn for the type narew narewe, i.e. a strong sg form ending in <-ew> and a weak/pl form ending in <-ewe>. This removal of stem alternation in found in six adjectives in pre-1250 sources.
3. Forms with an epenthetic vowel before <w> such as calewe, falew, falow, ȝeoluwe, ȝeolow, ȝeolewe, ȝeluwe, yelowe, Gelewe, meruw(e), mearuw, mearewe, narewe, nearewe are very common⁵. In fact they predominate. And they appear in the earliest MED examples, which is not surprising since the epenthetic vowel dates from the OE period: caluw, cylew, fealewe, ġearowes, ġelewum, mearuwe, nearewe i.a.
4. The case of ᵹare ᵹare in which the <w> is dropped entirely, appears to be unique. ⁶

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loss of alternation in wa-, wō-stems in eME

The key, particularly in regard to the early stages of learning a language, is to offer the simplest route. This is where principles 3 & 4 come into play. The upshot is that while OE wa-, wō-stems have a dual stem, their reflexes in the core grammar of eME, have a single stem.

In normalising the reflexes of wa-, wō-stems, the approach is as follows:

1. we start with an adjective paradigm that we would expect to exhibit stem alternation, e.g. naru nar(e)we or ᵹaru ᵹar(e)we;
2. in a pre-1250 text we find a form which removes the stem alternation for either the sg strong or weak/pl; e.g. naru sg strong > narew sg strong and ȝar(e)we pl > ȝare pl;
3. via principle 3 the stem levelling of one form (e.g. pl) is extended to the remaining form (e.g. sg weak) within the paradigm; so ȝare pl is extended to ȝare sg weak;
4. courtesy of principle 4, the paradigm levelling of the majority of wa-, wo- stems can be extended to the remaining few words in that group; e.g. the narew narewe pattern is extended to salew salewe etc;

Thus we have:

pre-1250 removal of stem alternation:

1. <w> absent throughout: ȝare pl

2. <w> in all forms: falew nom sg strong, ȝeolow nom sg strong, [geleu nom sg strong], mearuw nom sg strong, nareu nom sg strong, nearow nom sg strong, [nerewe acc sg strong]³, caluw, cylew nom sg strong

via principle 3 - extend removal of stem alternation throughout paradigm:

ᵹare ᵹare, falew falewe, ᵹelew ᵹelewe, marew marewe, narew narewe, calew calewe, kilew kilewe⁴

via principle 4 - extend pattern of simplified paradigm to entire group:

salew salewe

special cases - via principle 4 but without ModE reflex:

basew basewe, hasew hasewe

The precise form of the ending in the reflexes of wa-, wō-stems in the core grammar, i.e. <ew-> rather than <ow-/uw-> is determined by PC2, one of the two primary eME sources, with the support of Lmn, AW and Owl.

And that leads us back to the paradigms presented above for Orm on one hand and for PC2, Lmn and AW, on the other. This time they are rebranded as optional grammar and core grammar:

Similarly: falew, ᵹelew, marew, calew, kilew, salew, basew, hasew

The sole exception is:

See also the closely related wa- and wō-stem nouns.

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irregular adverbs in OE and ME

The following sections deal with adverbs which are not formed simply by adding <e> to the corresponding adjective in OE. Some involve i-mutation (aka umlaut) in the adjective but not the adverb. Much of this irregularity was lost in the late Mercian dialect of OE. In others, no <e> was added to the stem.

no <e> added to the adverb

A few adverbs in OE had no final <e>. Several of these are adverbs of place which have similar forms in the ModE reflex: feorr (far), hēr (here), þǣr (there)

One OE/eME adverb without final <e> which would not be familiar to ModE speakers is: ǣr adv > ær adv > early (beforehand) adv

One ModE adverb, which is indistinguishable from the corresponding adjective, differs from its eME predecessor in that respect: lang adj lange adv > láng adj lánge adv > long adj/adv

i-mutation in the adjective

Wright ¹¹ lists certain OE adjective-adverb pairs in which the adjective displays i-mutation while the adverb does not. These forms merged in lOE, if not before. Clark Hall ¹³ and Bosworth Toller list both smēþe and smōþ as adjectives. In AW smeðe appears as both adjective and adverb. Orm has smeþe adj. The earliest entry for smóþ adj in the MED is from SO 1330.

Similar is sōfte which is listed as both adjective and adverb in Clark Hall, along with sēfte adj. The latter adjectival form is displaced by softe in eME. Orm has soffte adj while PC2, Lmn, AW and Owl all have softe adj. The MED has 303 entries for softe adj against 2 for sefte adj.

Clark Hall lists enge anxious as both adjective and adverb, and ange as a variant which redirects to enge. Orm has ange adj, without support from a second eME source, while the MED records no instances of enge . Note that ange doesn't qualify as an additonal eME form.

Clark Hall lists swōt as an adjective with adverbial counterpart swōte along with swēte adj and swētlīce adv. swote is an adjective in both AW and Ch with corresponding adverb swoteliche in AW. Orm has swet as adjective and swete as adverb while AW and Owl have swete adj. Note that Orm's adjectival form without <e> isn't supported by a second eME source.

The upshot is that the core eME grammar uses sméþe adj/adv, softe adj/adv, enge adj/adv, and swéte adj/adv.

In additon, the optional grammar uses the eME forms inherited from standard OE forms: smóþ adj, smóþe adv, swót adj, and swóte adv.

adverbs ending in -unga

Some of these survive to eME, e.g. fǣrunga suddenly, unexpectedly > BH 1175 feringe. However in most cases, if not all, a form ending in -like/liche with similar meaning, is more common, e.g. Orm færlike, PC1 fearlice, AW ferliche, Lmn færliche, 1250 ferlike.

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irregular comparatives in OE and ME

In OE most adjectives form the comparative and superlative with -ra and -ost respectively, e.g. blīþe happy > blīþra happier, blīþost happiest.

The comparative and superlative of adverbs were formed by adding -or and -ost respectively, e.g. fæġere fairly > fæġror more fairly, fæġrost most fairly.

i-mutation

In OE, a small number of adjectives had i-mutation (aka umlaut) in their comparative forms. The most common of these are listed below, together with a selection of corresponding forms from the MED as well as the forms used in the core and optional eME grammars of this site:

brād, brǣdra/brādra, brádost

1300/1400 braddere, 1350/1384/1400 bradder, Ch brodder

core: brádere (< ModE broader + OE var brādra)

optional: brædre

eald, ieldra; A ald, ældra, ældest (lOE A ā ǣ ǣ)

PM 1200 elder (alder/eldre), Lmn eældre (elder), 1225 eldest, 1250 eldere, Ch elder

core: eldere

optional: eldre

feorr, fierra/fyrra, fierresta

PC1 firrer, AW firreste (e) w, (1198/1228 ferre w,) Ch ferreste w

core: ferrere

optional: firre

ġeong, ġingra (ie), ġingest

PC1 gingre (lone <i> form in MED), Orm ᵹunngre, Lmn ȝengestte (ȝeongeste), 1250 gungere

core: ᵹungere

optional: ᵹingre

grēat, grīetra (MED: WS grȳttra, A grēttra), grīetest

Lmn greatere/grætere/grettere/grættere, AW grettre/greattre, 1300 grettere, Ch gretter, grettest

core: grætere

optional: grettre

lang, lengra, lengest

Orm lenngre adv, AW lengre, Lmn lengre lengere, HR 1175 længre, VV/TH 1200 lengere, 1250 lengre adv, GE 1250 lengere adv; note - no langere/longer pre-1250

core: lengere

optional: lengre

sċort (eo/y), sċyrtra, sċyrtest

MED: scort/sceort, sceortra/scyrtra; BT: scort, scyrtre/sceortran and scortostan (note - scyrtre is more common);

VH 1150 scyrtre, HR 1175 sceortre (/o/?); next earliest cmp with <e> is 1335 schorter; it seems most likely that OE positive had /o/ vowel while comparative had /y/, though shert occurs 2/3 times in MED

core: scortere (< ModE shorter + pre-1250 sceortre)

optional: scirtre

strang, strengra, strengesta; adv strange, strangor, strangost

MED lOE: strengere

PC2 strengere, Lmn strengeste, AW strengre, Owl strengur, Ch strenger(e); no pre-1250 stronger/strangere cmp; earliest are Lmn 1300 strangere, Hav strangest, 1325 stranger and 1340 Ayb stranger

core: strengere

optional: strengre

The upshot is that only eldere, lengere and strengere retain the i-mutation in the core grammar. Five other adjectives - brád, fer, ᵹung, græt and scort, retain the i-mutation in comparative forms in the optional grammar.

adverbs

The list of irregular comparatives in eME is shorter for adverbs. According to Wright ¹², OE had five adverbial comparative forms with mutated stem vowel and no ending: ēaþe īeþ ēaþost (easily, more easily, most ~), feorr fi(e)rr/fyr(r) fi(e)rrest/fyrrest (far, further, furthest), lange leng lengest (long, longer, longest), sōfte sēft softly, more softly, and tulge tylg tylgest (firmly, more firmly, most ~). Two others - hēah hēar and nēah nēar are dealt with in the next section. Another pair have no positive form - ǣr formerly, sīþ later.

The following comparative adverbs are recorded in the MED for each of the OE adverbs indicated above:

1. eðere, eiðer, æð, eð
2. fir, firre, fer(re), ferrer, feor(re), feorror, forre, forror, fur(re), far(re), farrer, ver, verror; sup. first, ferrest
3. leng
4. softer
5. -

Notes for each of these comparative adverbs:

1. In texts dated before 1250 we find: TH 1200 eðere, PM 1250 eiðer which could be considered regular comparative formations from æþe adv. Both have an ending and a stem which is indistinguishable from that of the comparative adjective found in Lmn 1300 eþere adj cmp. Compare also AW eþ adj. Comparative adverbial forms without an ending are BH 1175 æð and Lmn 1200 æð/eð. The core grammar form that emerges via Principle 3 is æþer. In the absence of an additional eME form and the lack of clear indication regarding i-mutation in this comparative form in early East Midland, the optional grammar form is inherited from the standard OE form: éþ.
2. No ferrer adv cmp forms are recorded before 1250. The earliest are recorded in 1338 and 1350. 1338 and 1378 sources have ferrere. Note the later East Midland forms: Ch ferre, Pearl 1380 fyrre and Cl 1380 firre adv cmp, which feature i-mutation in two cases. Compare also Owl 1216 forre, Lmn 1300 vorre, 1300 furre, 1335/1350 ferre, 1300/1338/1350 farre and Gaw 1390 firre adv cmp. Without an additional eME form, the optional grammar inherits fir from OE. Note that Clark Hall doesn't make clear which of three variants (see above) should be considered the standard OE form. The eME form could be either fir or fer. The 14th century East Midland texts - Pearl and Cloud of Unknowing, nudge the decision in favour of the former.
3. leng is well represented in the MED (36 quotations), from PC1 1121 to 1450. PC2, Lmn, Owl and Ch all have an instance of leng. Since longer adv cmp does appear in the MED as early as 1250, leng passes to the optional grammar only.
4. seft adv cmp is missing in the MED. A search for 'seft' in the general search turns up only seft adj (2 quotations). Within softe adv, a browser search for the string 'seft' returns empty. There are however two instances of softer in that same page, dated 1378 and 1450 respectively. Ordinarily this form would be disregarded, since both ME sources fall after our cut-off year - 1250 (see Principles 2b and 3). The clincher is an OE variant softor adv cmp recorded in Boswell Toller. With the support of ModE, softer adv cmp qualifies an additional eME form, but the pre-1250 date alone allows it to pass to the core grammar via Principle 3. Meanwhile the optional grammar inherits seft adv cmp from the standard OE form.
5. Given the absence of an entry for tulge or tilg in the MED, the optional grammar inherits tulge tilg tilgest from OE.

The five adverbs discussed above constitute, in the words of Principle 4: "a distinct group of words with shared characteristics". Pursuing this line, the degrees of comparison of an adjective or adverb are a grammatical pattern akin to the paradigm of an adjective or noun. So we can apply Principle 3 - "anomalies are excluded from the core eME grammar when evidence of levelling exists in a paradigm (or similar grammatical pattern) in a text dated before 1250". Hence three of the five comparative adverbs above: æþer, lánger, softer emerge via Principle 3, with corresponding superlative forms: æþest, lángest, softest. The anomalies of i-mutation in the stem vowel and no ending are removed. The standard comparative and superlative endings - -er and -est are added to the positive form. The pattern of these three comparative adverbs can then be applied to the remaining two in the group via Principle 4: ferrer ferrest, tulger tulgest.

The upshot is as follows:

• Core grammar: æþer, lánger, softer, ferrer, tulger
• Optional grammar: éþ, leng, seft, fir, tilg

stems with final <h>

hēah, hīehra/hīerra/hēahra, hīehst (ēa/ē/ȳ)

Orm hehre, hehᵹʰesst, PC1 hihste, Lmn heȝere hæhste, AW herre hehest, Ch heyȝere heyȝest

core: hégere, hégest

optional: héhre, héhst

nēah, nēara, nīehst (A nēh nēorra nēhst)

Orm nerre, Lmn nexte, AW neorre, nexte, 1200 neȝest, Ch ne(e)r, next(e)

core & optional: nérre, néhst

The divergence between the comparative forms of ModE high and nigh: higher highest vs near next⁷, begins in eME. The lone regular comparative form for néh in the MED prior to 1250 is neȝest which is clearly outnumbered by the contracted comparatives of the main eME sources - ne(o)rre and next(e). More importantly, Principle 3 would not allow *néᵹere *néᵹest in the core grammar, because the <e> of the comparative endings is also dropped in the ModE reflexes - near⁸ and next⁹. Note that the waters are a little muddied here by the fact that in ModE the commonly used positive form is the former comparative - near, which has spawned a new pair of comparatives - nearer and nearest. Nevertheless, the comparatives are contracted in eME.

In short, néh replaces the final consonant of the stem (<h/g>) with an <r> in the comparative and drops the <e> of the suffix in the comparative and the superlative. This applies to both the core and optional grammars. héh drops the <e> of the suffix in the superlative, in the optional grammar only.

adverbs

The comparatives of the corresponding adverbs are dealt with in similar fashion with similar results:

hēah, hēar/hēgur BT, hīehst

Orm heᵹʰesst, Lmn haxst, Owl herre, Ayb 1340 heȝere, heȝest, Ch heyest/hyest

core: héger, hégest

optional: hér, héhst

nēah, nēar, nīehst (A nēh nēor nēhst)

Orm ner, Lmn/AW neor, AW nest, Owl ne(o)r, Ch ne(e)r, next

core & optional: nér, néhst

the suffixes ~liċ ~licra ~licost

One of the suffixes used to form adjectives in OE was ~liċ. Examples are ǣnliċ (unique), ānliċ (solitary), ċildliċ (infantile), cyneliċ (royal), dæġliċ (daily), dēadliċ (deadly), ealdliċ (venerable), forhtliċ (afraid), ġearliċ (yearly), ġesinsċipliċ (conjugal), heofonliċ (heavenly), heteliċ (hostile), lofliċ (praiseworthy), lufliċ (loving, amiable, kind), mennisċliċ (human), mǣrliċ (famous), nytliċ (useful), stōwliċ (local), tīdliċ (temporary), wīfliċ (womanly).

The first thing to note is the divergence in sound of the stem-final consonant between the positive and comparative forms. ~liċ has /tʃ/, a voiceless postalveolar affricate, while ~licra and ~licost have /k/, a voiceless velar plosive.

The eME forms that emerge from these standard OE forms after eME sound and spelling changes are applied (see table X), are: ~lic ~licre ~likest. These are the forms listed in the optional grammar.

The core grammar on the other hand has two similar and interchangeable adjectival suffixes: ~liᵹ and ~lík which form their comparatives regularly by the addition of ~ere and ~est. Forms such as erþliᵹ and hefenlík appear in Orm and other eME sources and presage the ModE forms earthly, heavenly and childlike etc.

The second thing to note is the apparent lengthening of the vowel in the adverbial form derived from ~liċ in OE: ~līċe. At least that is the indication in Clark Hall. Boswell Toller on the other hand has either a short or long vowel in the adjectival suffix, e.g. eorþlīċ, ǣnlīċ but heofendliċ¹⁶, while Wright has a bet each way with a combined breve and macron diacritic for adverbs: cræftlī̆ce.

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