8/10/2023 0 Comments I in old english![]() Note however that most adjectives do not work like this. Some adjectives in the comparative and superlative.įor example, from the adjective "lang" ("long") we get the comparative "lengra" ("longer") and the superlative "lenġest" ("longest").In the first instance, the verb "fēdan" has been formed from the noun "fōda" in the second instance, the verb "fyllan" has been formed from the adjective "full". Why is it that you feed people food, and that you make things full by filling them? By now you should be able to recognize these as instances of i-mutation. Formation of class 1 weak verbs from nouns and adjectives.Or again, from the verb "dūfan" ("to dive") we have "iċ dūfe", but "þū dȳfst" and "hē dȳfþ". 2nd and 3rd person singulars of strong verbs.Ĭompare, for example "iċ ċeorfe" ("I cut") with "þū ċierfst" ("thou cuttest"/"you (sg) cut") and "hē ċierfþ" ("he cuts").Other examples where the effects of i-mutation are visible include the adjective "hāl" ("whole", "hale") forming the noun "hǣlþ" ("health") and the word "fūl" ("foul") forming the noun "fȳlþ" ("filth"). Nouns converted from adjectives by addition of þ.Ī number of such nouns are still used in English: for example from "strong" we get "strength": compare Old English "strang"/"strengþ". ![]() Old English also exhibited this feature in nouns which are now regular in English, such as "bōc"/"bēċ" (Modern English "book"/"books"). This survives in such Modern English nouns as "man"/"men", "tooth", "teeth", "mouse"/"mice", from the Old English "mann"/"menn", "tōþ"/"tēþ", "mūs"/"mȳs". It is not necessary for you to learn all of these instances now, as you can study them when they come up in articles on verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc however, it will be useful for you to read through this section and familiarize yourself with the concepts in it. I-mutation can be seen in the following places, among others. All diphthongs ( io (early)/ eo/ ea) mutate into ie/ īe (short diphthongs to the former, long diphthongs to the latter).The front vowels ( a, e) all become more closed, i.e., they move closer to i/ y, except ǣ and ē do not mutate.The back vowels ( o/ u/ a and their long versions) become their fronted equivalents ( e/ y/ æ). ![]() To make this easier to understand and to memorize, we can observe a few rules:
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