Middle English

==Morphology==

=== Nouns ===
Middle English retains only two distinct noun-ending patterns from the more complex system of [[Old English grammar#Nouns|inflection in Old English]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Middle English nouns
! rowspan="2" |Nouns
! colspan="2" |[[Strong noun]]s
! colspan="2" |[[Weak noun]]s
|-
!Singular
!Plural
!Singular
!Plural
|-
!Nominative
| rowspan="2" | -({{lang|enm|e|italic=unset}})
| rowspan="2" | -{{lang|enm|es|italic=unset}}
| -{{lang|enm|e}}
| rowspan="4" | -{{lang|enm|en|italic=unset}}
|-
!Accusative
| rowspan="3" | -{{lang|enm|en|italic=unset}}
|-
!Genitive
| -{{lang|enm|es|italic=unset}}<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
| -{{lang|enm|e|italic=unset}}({{lang|enm|ne|italic=unset}})<ref>cf. 'Ancrene Wisse' (The ''Anchoresses''' Guide)</ref>
|-
!Dative
| -{{lang|enm|e|italic=unset}}
| -{{lang|enm|e|italic=unset}}({{lang|enm|s|italic=unset}})
|}
Nouns of the weak declension are primarily inherited from Old English ''n''-stem nouns but also from ''ō''-stem, ''wō''-stem, and ''u''-stem nouns,{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} which did not inflect in the same way as ''n''-stem nouns in Old English, but joined the weak declension in Middle English. Nouns of the strong declension are inherited from the other Old English noun stem classes.

Some nouns of the strong type have an ''-e'' in the nominative/accusative singular, like the weak declension, but otherwise strong endings. Often, these are the same nouns that had an ''-e'' in the nominative/accusative singular of Old English (they, in turn, were inherited from [[Proto-Germanic]] ''ja''-stem and ''i''-stem nouns).

The distinct dative case was lost in early Middle English. The genitive survived, however, but by the end of the Middle English period, only the strong ''-'s'' ending (variously spelt) was in use.<ref>Fischer, O., van Kemenade, A., Koopman, W., van der Wurff, W., ''The Syntax of Early English'', CUP 2000, p. 72.</ref> Some formerly feminine nouns, as well as some weak nouns, continued to make their genitive forms with ''-e'' or no ending (e.g., {{lang|enm|fole hoves}}, horses' hooves), and nouns of relationship ending in ''-er'' frequently have no genitive ending (e.g., {{lang|enm|fader bone}}, "father's bane").<ref name="Burrow-2005-p23">Burrow & Turville-Petre 2005, p.&nbsp;23</ref>

The strong ''-(e)s'' plural form has survived into Modern English. The weak ''-(e)n'' form is now rare and used only in ''oxen'' and as part of a [[double plural]], in ''children'' and ''brethren''. Some dialects still have forms such as ''eyen'' (for ''eyes''), ''shoon'' (for ''shoes''), ''hosen'' (for ''hose(s)''), ''kine'' (for ''cows''), and ''been'' (for ''bees'').

[[Grammatical gender]] survived to a limited extent in early Middle English<ref name="Burrow-2005-p23"/> before being replaced by natural gender in the course of the Middle English period. Grammatical gender was indicated by agreement of articles and pronouns (e.g., {{lang|enm|þo ule}} "the feminine owl") or using the pronoun {{lang|enm|he}} to refer to masculine nouns such as {{lang|enm|helm}} ("helmet"), or phrases such as {{lang|enm|scaft stærcne}} (strong shaft), with the masculine accusative adjective ending ''-ne''.<ref name="Burrow-2005-p38">Burrow & Turville-Petre 2005, p.&nbsp;38</ref>

===Adjectives===
Single-syllable adjectives added ''-e'' when modifying a noun in the plural and when used after the definite article ({{lang|enm|þe}}), after a demonstrative ({{lang|enm|þis}}, {{lang|enm|þat}}), after a possessive pronoun (e.g., {{lang|enm|hir}}, {{lang|enm|our}}), or with a name or in a form of address. This derives from the Old English "weak" declension of adjectives.<ref name="Burrow-2005-pp27-28">Burrow & Turville-Petre 2005, pp.&nbsp;27–28</ref> This inflexion continued to be used in writing even after final -e had ceased to be pronounced.<ref name="Burrow-2005-p28">Burrow & Turville-Petre 2005, p.&nbsp;28</ref> In earlier texts, multisyllable adjectives also receive a final ''-e'' in these situations, but this occurs less regularly in later Middle English texts. Otherwise, adjectives have no ending and adjectives already ending in ''-e'' etymologically receive no ending as well.<ref name="Burrow-2005-p28"/>

Earlier texts sometimes inflect adjectives for case as well. ''[[Layamon's Brut]]'' inflects adjectives for the masculine accusative, genitive, and dative, the feminine dative, and the plural genitive.<ref name="Burrow-2005-pp28-29">Burrow & Turville-Petre 2005, pp.&nbsp;28–29</ref> ''The Owl and the Nightingale'' adds a final ''-e'' to all adjectives not in the nominative, here only inflecting adjectives in the weak declension (as described above).<ref name="Burrow-2005-p29">Burrow & Turville-Petre 2005, p.&nbsp;29</ref>

[[Comparative]]s and superlatives were usually formed by adding ''-er'' and ''-est''. Adjectives with long vowels sometimes shortened these vowels in the comparative and superlative (e.g., {{lang|enm|greet}}, great; {{lang|enm|gretter}}, greater).<ref name="Burrow-2005-p29"/> Adjectives ending in ''-ly'' or ''-lich'' formed comparatives either with ''-lier'', ''-liest'' or ''-loker'', ''-lokest''.<ref name="Burrow-2005-p29"/> A few adjectives also displayed [[Germanic umlaut]] in their comparatives and superlatives, such as {{lang|enm|long}}, {{lang|enm|lenger}}.<ref name="Burrow-2005-p29"/> Other irregular forms were mostly the same as in modern English.<ref name="Burrow-2005-p29"/>

===Pronouns===
Middle English [[personal pronoun]]s were mostly developed from [[Old English pronouns|those of Old English]], with the exception of the third person plural, a borrowing from [[Old Norse]] (the original Old English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped). Also, the nominative form of the feminine third person singular was replaced by a form of the [[demonstrative]] that developed into {{lang|enm|sche}} (modern ''she''), but the alternative {{lang|enm|heyr}} remained in some areas for a long time.

As with nouns, there was some inflectional simplification (the distinct Old English [[dual (grammatical number)|dual]] forms were lost), but pronouns, unlike nouns, retained distinct nominative and accusative forms. Third person pronouns also retained a distinction between accusative and dative forms, but that was gradually lost: The masculine {{lang|nme|hine}} was replaced by {{lang|enm|him}} south of the [[River Thames]] by the early 14th century, and the neuter dative {{lang|enm|him}} was ousted by ''it'' in most dialects by the 15th.<ref>Fulk, R.D., ''An Introduction to Middle English'', Broadview Press, 2012, p. 65.</ref>

The following table shows some of the various Middle English pronouns. Many other variations are noted in Middle English sources because of differences in spellings and pronunciations at different times and in different dialects.<ref>See {{cite book |last=Stratmann |first=Francis Henry |year=1891 |title=A Middle-English dictionary |url=https://archive.org/details/middleenglishdic00stra |place=London |publisher = Oxford University Press |ol=7114246M }} and {{cite book |last1=Mayhew |first1=AL |last2=Skeat |first2=Walter W |year=1888 |title=A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580 |place=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |url= http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10625/10625-h/main.html}}</ref>

{{Middle English personal pronouns (table)}}

===Verbs===
As a general rule, the indicative first person singular of verbs in the present tense ended in ''-e'' (e.g., {{lang|enm|ich here}}, "I hear"), the second person singular in ''-(e)st'' (e.g., {{lang|enm|þou spekest}}, "thou speakest"), and the third person singular in ''-eþ'' (e.g., {{lang|enm|he comeþ}}, "he cometh/he comes"). (''[[Thorn (letter)|þ]]'' (the letter "thorn") is pronounced like the unvoiced ''th'' in "think", but under certain circumstances, it may be like the voiced ''th'' in "that"). The following table illustrates a typical conjugation pattern:<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Principles of English Composition.|year = 1831|url = https://archive.org/details/principlesengli01bootgoog|last = Booth|first = David|publisher = Cochrane and Pickersgill}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title = Introduction to Middle English|date = 9 September 2016|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sjVYDwAAQBAJ|last = Horobin|first = Simon|publisher = Edinburgh University Press |isbn = 9781474408462}}</ref><!-- NOTE: It's unclear which of the following entries in this table require a language tag.-->
{| class="wikitable"
|+Middle English verb inflection
! rowspan="3" |Verbs inflection
! rowspan="3" |Infinitive
! colspan="5" |Present
! colspan="5" |Past
|-
! rowspan="2" |Participle
! colspan="3" |Singular
! rowspan="2" |Plural
! rowspan="2" |Participle
! colspan="3" |Singular
! rowspan="2" |Plural
|-
!1st person
!2nd person
!3rd person
!1st person
!2nd person
!3rd person
|-
! colspan="12" |Regular verbs
|-
!Strong
| rowspan="2" | -en
| rowspan="2" |  -ende, -ynge
| rowspan="2" | -e
| rowspan="2" | -est
| rowspan="2" | -eþ (-es)
| rowspan="2" | -en (-es, -eþ)
|i- -en
| –
| -e (-est)
| –
| -en
|-
!Weak
| -ed
| -ede
| -edest
| -ede
| -eden
|-
! colspan="12" |Irregular verbs
|-
! rowspan="2" |Been "be"
| rowspan="2" |been
| rowspan="2" |beende, beynge
|am
|art
|is
|aren
| rowspan="2" |ibeen
| rowspan="2" |was
|wast
| rowspan="2" |was
| rowspan="2" |weren
|-
|be
|bist
|biþ
|beth, been
|were
|-
!Cunnen "can"
|cunnen
|cunnende, cunnynge
|can
|canst
|can
|cunnen
|cunned, coud
|coude, couthe
|coudest, couthest
|coude, couthe
|couden, couthen
|-
!Don "do"
|don
|doende, doynge
|do
|dost
|doþ
|doþ, don
|idon
|didde
|didst
|didde
|didden
|-
!Douen "be good for"
|douen
|douende, douynge
|deigh
|deight
|deigh
|douen
|idought
|dought
|doughtest
|dought
|doughten
|-
!Durren "dare"
|durren
|durrende, durrynge
|dar
|darst
|dar
|durren
|durst, dirst
|durst
|durstest
|durst
|dursten
|-
!Gon "go"
|gon
|goende, goynge
|go
|gost
|goþ
|goþ, gon
|igon(gen)
|wend, yede, yode
|wendest, yedest, yodest
|wende, yede, yode
|wenden, yeden, yoden
|-
!Haven "have"
|haven
|havende, havynge
|have
|hast
|haþ
|haven
|ihad
|hadde
|haddest
|hadde
|hadden
|-
!Moten "must"
| –
| –
|mot
|must
|mot
|moten
| –
|muste
|mustest
|muste
|musten
|-
!Mowen "may"
|mowen
|mowende, mowynge
|may
|myghst
|may
|mowen
|imought
|mighte
|mightest
|mighte
|mighten
|-
!Owen "owe, ought"
|owen
|owende, owynge
|owe
|owest
|owe
|owen
|iowen
|owed
|ought
|owed
|ought
|-
!Schulen "should"
| –
| –
|schal
|schalt
|schal
|schulen
| –
|scholde
|scholdest
|scholde
|scholde
|-
!Þurven/Þaren "need"
| –
| –
|þarf
|þarst
|þarf
|þurven, þaren
| –
|þurft
|þurst
|þurft
|þurften
|-
!Willen "want"
|willen
|willende, willynge
|will
|wilt
|will
|wollen
|  –
|wolde
|woldest
|wolde
|wolden
|-
!Witen "know"
|witen
|witende, witynge
|woot
|woost
|woot
|witen
|iwiten
|wiste
|wistest
|wiste
|wisten
|}
Plural forms vary strongly by dialect, with Southern dialects preserving the Old English ''-eþ'', Midland dialects showing ''-en'' from about 1200, and Northern forms using ''-es'' in the third person singular as well as the plural.<ref name="cambridge">{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/211/1905.html|title=The Cambridge History of English and American Literature| first1 =AW | last1 = Ward | first2 = AR | last2 = Waller| date= 1907–21| access-date= Oct 4, 2011 | publisher = Bartleby}}</ref>

The past tense of weak verbs was formed by adding an ''-ed(e)'', ''-d(e)'', or ''-t(e)'' ending. The past-tense forms, without their personal endings, also served as past participles with past-participle prefixes derived from Old English: ''i-'', ''y-'', and sometimes ''bi-''.

[[Germanic strong verb|Strong verbs]], by contrast, formed their past tense by changing their stem vowel (e.g., {{lang|enm|binden}} became {{lang|enm|bound}}, a process called [[apophony]]), as in Modern English.