Sievers Eduard. Grammar of Old English
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EVERS
COOK
f
OL
D
ENGLISH
GINN
&
COMPANY
OLD
ENGLISH
GRAMMAR
BY
EDUARD
SIEVERS, PH.D.,
PROFESSOR OF
GERMANIC
PHILOLOGY IN
THE UNIVERSITY OF HALLE.
TRANSLATED AND EDITED
BY
ALBERT
S.
COOK,
PH.D.
(JENA),
PROFESSOR
OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE
AND
LITERATURE IN
THB
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
SECOND
EDITION,
REVISED
AND
ENLARGED.
BOSTON,
U.S.A.:
.
PUBLISHED
BY
GINN
& COMPANY.
Entered,
according
to Act of
Congress,
in
the
year
1885,
by
ALBERT 8.
COOK,
In the Office of the Librarian of
Congress,
at
Washington.
Entered,
according
to Act of
Congress,
in the
year
1887,
by
ALBERT 8.
COOK,
to the Office
of the
Librarian
of
Congress,
at
Washington.
ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
JUN
1
:<M958
TYPOGRAPHY
BY
J. 8. COSHING
&
Co.,
BOSTON,
U.S.A.
FRETWORK BY GlNN &
Co.,
BOSTON,
U.S.A.
AUTHOR'S
PREFACE TO THE
FIRST
EDITION.
ABOUT a
year ago
the
publisher
of the
"
Series
of
Brief
Grammars
of
the Germanic Dialects
"
invited me to
prepare
the Old
English
member of the
series.
At
that time
the
pressure
of other
duties did
not
justify
me
in
promising
him
more than
a
revision of an earlier
set
of
lectures on
Old
English grammar,
adapted
to
conform
to the
general
plan.
The brief sketch
which
follows, therefore,
makes no
preten-
sion to be
anything
more than such
a
revision,
although
much
has
been added
in
the
process
of
re-copying
which was
foreign
to the
original
draft.
Hitherto,
Old
English
grammars
have
virtually
been
founded
Upon
the
language
of the
poetical
texts.
This
is
to be
deplored, especially
when
we
consider
that the
manu-
scripts
in
which
they
are
contained are
uniformly
late
;
that
the texts themselves
were
composed
at an earlier
period,
and
frequently
in another dialect
;
and that
in our
present
ver-
sions
ancient
forms
are almost
hopelessly
jumbled
with
more,
modern
ones,
and
specimens
of the most
widely separated
dialects are
occasionally
united
in
the
same
composition.
._
In
the
present
treatise,
on
the other
hand,
the
language
of
the older
prose
writings
has,
to a
greater
extent
than
heretofore,
been
chosen
as the
basis
of
grammatical
inves-
tigation,
since it
is safe to assume
that
they
represent
in
some measure
a
single
dialect.
Besides
the
characterization
of
the West
Saxon,
which
is
everywhere
made the
most
prom-
inent,
an
attempt
has also
been made
to
give, though
in
the
most
concise
terms,
the chief
variations
of
the
other
dialects.
Moreover,
the method
followed
has been the
historical
;
that
iv
AUTHOR'S
PREFACE
TO
THE FIRST EDITION.
is,
I have
endeavored
to
discriminate between
early
and late
forms
in
a
somewhat
more critical
manner than has
been
customary,
at least
in
Germany.
In
this
respect, particu-
larlv.
inv
work
will need
to be
supplemented
and corrected.
Just
here,
however,
I
desire
to
anticipate
one
objection
which
inav
be
brought
against my
statements.
When a sound
or
a,
form
is said
to be "earlier"
or
"
later,"
these
terms
are to
be
understood
as
designating
the
relative
age
of
two corre-
sponding
sounds
or
forms,
or the
great preponderance
of the
one
or
the
other
in
documents
of an
earlier or later
date,
and must not
be construed
as
denying
the isolated
occurrence
of
"later" forms
in
earlier
texts,
or
the reverse.
In
the
present
state
of our
knowledge
of
Old
English,
it is not
possible
to
proceed
with
any
nearer
approach
to
accuracy
;
as
regards
the
exact
chronology
of
Old
English
sounds
and
forms,
almost
everything
is
3
-
et
to
be
done.
The
citations
are not
usually
intended
to be
exhaustive,
since this
was
precluded
by
the
very plan
of the
series.
Many
details,
which
appear
to
be
confined
exclusively
to
the
language
of
poetry,
have been
intentionally
omitted,
because
I believed that
the
beginner
should
first
acquaint
himself
with the normal
or
typical
forms
of
the
language
;
it
should
be
observed,
however,
that
what is
lacking
in
the
paragraphs
treating
of
West
Saxon
will
frequently
be
found under
the
lic:i<l
of the
other
dialects.
On
the
other
hand,
I
regret
that
my
account
of
heterogeneous
and
heteroclitic nouns is
not
more full
and
explicit.
In
the
phonology,
and
especially
in
that of
the
vowels,
it
was
impossible
to
avoid
touching upon
the
theories of
com-
p:ir:itive
philology.
Here,
again,
the
utmost
attainable
bn-vity
has
been
aimed at.
In
general,
an
elementary
knowledge
of
Gothic
has
been
presupposed
;
Old
High
Ger-
man
and
Old
Saxon
forms
have
been
introduced
only
in
exceptional
instances,
and
then
only
when
they
were
required
to
elucidate
some
difficulty.
AUTHOR
S PREFACE TO
THE FIRST
EDITION. V
The first effectual
stimulus
to
a
historical
study
of
Old
English,
and the
first outlines of Old
English
dialectology,
we
owe to
Hemy
Sweet.
In
the introduction to
his
edition
of the Cura
Pastoralis the
peculiarities
of
Early
West
Saxon
were
pointed
out for the
first time
;
and his
paper
entitled
"
Dialects and
Prehistoric
Forms of
English"
(Transactions
of the
Philological
Society,
1875-76,
p.
453
ff.)
first
directed
attention
to the
earliest
documents,
and
briefly
characterized
the
principal
dialects. Of
prime importance
are likewise his
investigations
into the
quantity
of Old
English
vowels
(120.
note)
;
these
were intended to
prepare
the
way
for a
new
edition of his
History
of
English
Sounds, London,
1874,
a
work which
leans rather to
a
theoretical treatment of
Old
English
phonology.
Besides,
the
grammatical
introduction
to Sweet's
Anglo-Saxon
Reader
(now
in
its third
edition,
Oxford,
1881,
though
I have been able to
consult
only
the
second)
contains
many
valuable
and,
what is
deserving
of
special recognition
in this
department
of
research,
trust-
worthy
particulars.
The
history
of certain
parts
of
the
Old
English
vowel-system
has
been,
for the
first
time,
illustrated in
the researches of
H.
Paul
into the Germanic
vowel-system
(Beitriige
zur
Ge-
schichte der Deutschen
Sprache
und Literatur
IV.
315
ff.,
and
VI.
1
ff.).
To these
should
be added the articles
by
Ten
Brink
(Zeitschrift
fiir
Deutsches
Alterthum,
XIX. 211
ff.,
Anglia,
I.
512
ff.),
and
by
J.
Zupitza
(Anzeiger
fur
Deut-
sches
Alterthum,
II. 1
ff.).
Of
monographs
on
special
points
but few have
been
published.
Zupitza
has
fully
discussed
the
language
of the
important
Kentish Glosses
(Zeitschrift
fiir
Deutsches
Alterthum,
XD. 1
ff.)
;
while,
besides
Sweet,
P.
J.
Cosijn
has
shed
light
upon
Early
West Saxon
by
his
admirable studies of the Cura Pastoralis and
the
Old
Eng-
lish
Chronicle
(Taalkundige Bijdragen,
Haarlem,
1877
ff.,
II. 115
ff.,
240
ff.),
as well as
by
his
Kurzgefasste
Altwest-
stichsische Grammatik
(I.
Theil,
Die
Vocale
der
Stammsilben,
vi
AUTHOR'S
PREFACE
TO
THE
FIRST
EDITION.
Leiden,
1881).
The
northern
dialects, moreover,
which had
been almost overlooked
since
the
labors of
K. W.
Bouterwek
(Introduction
to
his edition
of the
Four
Gospels
in the Old
Northumbrian
Language,
Gutersloh, 1857;
the edition is
totally
useless so
far as the
text
is
concerned)
and
of
M.
Heyne
(Kurze
Grammatik
der
Altgermanischen
Dialecte),
have
recently
been made
the
objects
of
study.
The
language
of the Psalter
(Appendix,
p. 222)
has
been
very critically
elucidated
by
R. Zeuner
(Die
Sprache
des Kentischen Psal-
ters,
Halle,
1881),
and
compared
with that of
the oldest
Kentish texts
;
the
author,
relying
upon
an
earlier
opinion
of
Sweef
s,
regarded
the Psalter
as
Kentish,
but this view is
shown to be
untenable
by
his own statements
in
the
treatise
referred to.
Finally,
a similar
comprehensive
investigation
of
the Northumbrian
documents is soon to
be
expected
from
Professor Albert
S. Cook.
To
what extent I
am indebted
to these and
other
prede-
cessors for
opinions
or
material can be
easily
determined
by
comparison.
To assure
every
one his
due is
rendered im-
possible
by
the
compass
and
plan
of
this
sketch.
To
my
friend W.
Braune
I
owe
grateful
acknowledgments
for
his
aid in
the
correction
of
proof-sheets,
and
for
many
valuable
suggestious
with
regard
to
the text
itself.
E.
SIEVERS.
JENA,
February
1,
1882.