The Old Tongue – Notes

Despite vocabularically  being based in Old English, the Old Tongue enjoys some grammar differences, especially for things like tense.

Verbs

Strong Verbs

• The infinitive form of the verb is the same as the indicative form, and depends on context to clearly tell which one.
• Indicative:

• Present Tense:  The word is ended with a consonant.
• Past Tense: If the word ends in a consonant that is not a plosive ( plosives are p, t, k, b, d, g ) has a t  added to the end. If ending in a plosive, add the suffix -ynt .
• Future Tense: If the word ends in a closed syllable, the last vowel is replaced with u  unless the present tense is u , in which case it becomes a y .

• Subjunctive:

• Present Tense: the last syllable is ended with an e  to create an open syllable, i.e., galan becomes gale , sittan  becomes sittale . As in “ Ic scyas thu sittale ” (I suggest you sit).
• Past Tense: the letter d  is added to the end of the present tense word, making it past tense.
• Future Tense:  the letter n  is added to the end of the present tense word, making it future tense.

• Imperative:  the end of the word is replaced with an open syllable, or a single consonant is removed to make the syllable open.
• Participle Tense:

• Present Tense:  Suffix -yng  is added.
• Past Tense: Last syllable of word is replaced with suffix -od
• Future Tense: If the infinitive form of the word ends in a non-plosive consonant, that is used as the future participle. Otherwise, the last syllable is modified to make the suffix -an , -in , or - on . The word gewill  is used before the verb, like in the modern tongue. (I  will scream , and Ic gewill galan . )

Weak Verbs

Weak verbs have many conjugations.

If the verb ends in - ian , like lufian  (to love).

• The infinitive form of the word, unlike with strong verbs, does not match the indicative form. Instead, it is different from the rest.

• Present Tense: Present tense infinitive verb is the word listed, unmodified and often not used in writing.
• Past Tense: Past tense infinitive verb has the -ian  replaced with -inyn .

• The imperative form of the word replaced -ian  with -a , unless the last consonant is a plosive, in which case -u  is used. (i.e., hwelpu , not hwelpa .)
• Indicative and Subjunctive tense:

• Present Tense: the word is ended with an -ia unless otherwise indicated.
• Past Tense: an -nt  or -unt  suffix is added, depending on if the verb is subjunctive (ending in -ast ) or indicative (ending in -a ).
• Future Tense: -ia  becomes -una (Indicative), or -ast  becomes -astan  (Subjunctive).

• Participle Tense (similar to strong verbs) :

• Present Tense:   -ian  becomes -yng , so heo sy lufia  (she is love) becomes heo sy lufyng  (she is loving)
• Past Tense: -ian   becomes -iod .
• Future Tense: The present indicative form is used. The word gewill  is used before the verb, like in the modern tongue. (I  will love , and Ic gewill lufia . )

If the verb ends in a consonant but not in -ian , like daelan (to share).

• Non -ian  verbs use similar rules to -ian  verbs.
• The infinitive form of the word, unlike with strong verbs, does not match the indicative form. Instead, it is different from the rest.

• Present Tense: Present tense infinitive verb is the word listed, unmodified and often not used in writing.
• Past Tense: Past tense infinitive verb replaces the last vowel sound

• The imperative  form of the word replaces the last syllable with -th , unless the last consonant is a plosive, in which case -eth  is used.
• Indicative and Subjunctive tense:

• Present Tense: the word is ended with an -as  unless otherwise indicated.
• Past Tense: an -yd  (indicative) or -unt  (subjunctive) suffix replaces the last syllable.
• Future Tense: the last syllable becomes -ena (Indicative), becomes -en  (Subjunctive).

• Participle Tense (similar to strong verbs) :

• Present Tense:  the last syllable (from the last vowel onward) is replaced with -yng .
• Past Tense:  the last syllable (from the last vowel onward) is replaced with -od .
• Future Tense: The present indicative form of the word is used. The word gewill  is used before the verb, like in the modern tongue.

Nouns

Nouns in the Old Tongue can have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives and determiners are affected by the gender of their corresponding noun.  “The” and “that” are se  when  the noun is masculine, seo  when the noun is feminine, and thaet  when the noun is neuter.

Example ( Fyr is a neuter noun, so thaet and hit  are used) :

Old Tongue          Me l i c ia  thaet fyr for thon the hit deth th a burg hlude.

Literal                 I like that fire for that it do the town loud.

Translation         I like the fire because it makes the city loud.