Niw Englisch/Modernizing Old English

The Niw Englisch language is essentially a modernized and simplified version of Old English. If you look at Old High German and compare it to New High German (Modern German), you can see how conservative the German language has been over the last 1200 years. In comparison, English has lost nearly all inflection and relies nearly entirely on word order to carry meaning. Niw Englisch takes Old English and modernizes and simplifies it to the degree that modern German has changed from Old High German.

Modernizing Words

Orthography

Nouns are capitalized like they were in the 18th century and in modern German, and adjectives acting like nouns are capitalized.

Example:

• Stream - "stream"
• Burg - "city"
• þe Braade - "the broad one"

To modernize from Old English to Niw Englisch, it is sometimes necessary to look at Proto-Germanic to develop a regular scheme of modernization. In Proto-Germanic, the 'a' broke into 'ea' in some Old English words, and sometimes the 'au' turned into 'ea'. The broken 'ea' is returned to 'a' like some accents of Old English, and the 'au' remains 'ea', pronounced as 'æ'.

Example:

• stréam from straum; it becomes Stream.

The Proto-Germanic 'eu' became éo, like léoht, céosan. This becomes 'ie,' Lieȝht and ciesen.

Vowel Change to Niw Englisch

Proto-Germanic	Old English	Niw Englisch
a ahto ak þat	æ, ea eahta ac þæt	a aȝht ac þat
e fell nestą	e fell nest	e Fell Nest
i fiskaz	i fisc	i Fisch
u duhter	o dohtor	o Doȝhter
u hunds	u hund	u Hund
u-i mūsiz	y mys	y Myse
a-i bankiz	æ/e+nasal benc ie iermþu	æ/e+nasal Benc
a-i armiþu alþizô kaliz	ie iermþu ieldra ciele	æ Ærmþe ælder Kæle
o-i fōtiz	œ/é fét	œ Fœte
o	ea	a
e melkaną erþō	eo meolcan erþe	e melken Erðe
i hirdijaz	ie hierde	i Hirde
iu kiusidi	ie cíesþ	ie ciesþ
ai aiks	a ác	a Aak
eu deupaz	eo déop	ie diep
a	ie	æ
i liʀnōn	io/eo leornian	e lernen
æ castra/cæster	ea ceaster	a Kaster (k from Latin)
ē skēpą	ǣ/éa sċǣp/scéap	ee Scheep
eww trewwō	eow tréow	ee Tree
we weraldiz	weo weoruld	we/wo Werld/World

Old English æ in simple stems remains in Niw Englisch if followed by ȝ, so nægl becomes Næȝl, and pæþ becomes Paþ. In some of these, leveling of the æ of the singular into the plural led to the crossing of a lot of simple nouns into the umlauting class, so that Paþ becomes Pæðe in the plural, Swaþ->Swæðe.

Digraphs and Trigraphs

The letter combination sce-/sci- represented the 'sh' sound in English before back vowels, while sca-/sco-/-scu- represented 'sk' generally. In Niw Englisch, the combination sch- always represents the 'sh' sound, while 'sk' always represents the 'sk' sound.

Examples:

• scur->Schur - 'shower'
• sceacan->schaken - 'to shake'

Consonants

The consonants from Old English to Niw Englisch are generally the same, though distinctions are made between the palatal and non-palatal consonants. The G is always a hard G sound like 'gold,' while the 'ȝ' is always a 'y' sound like 'young.'

Example:

• geong->ȝong -> young
• gold->Gold -> gold

In the digraph ȝh, after front vowels (æ, e, i, œ, y) it is pronounced like the ich-laut in German. After back vowels (a, o, u) it is pronounced like the ach-laut in German.

The C is always the 'ch' sound, while 'k' represents the hard 'k' sound from Old English.

Example:

• calan->kalan - to cool
• sceadan->schaden - to divide, separate

The two letters þ and ð represent the soft and hard version of the 'th' sound from English, as in 'think' and 'that'. They alternate to tell you how to pronounce a word.

Examples:

• þencan->þenken -> to think; 'th' like 'think'
• wiþer->wiðer -> against; 'th' like 'that'

HL, HR, HW - the HL and HR like hlud and hring are dropped to luud and Ring. The HW remained in actual English, so it remains, spelled with the Gothic letter hwair (Ƕƕ), like hwisprian->ƕispern.

Verbs

To modernize the Old English verb, change the -an/-ian to -en on the infinitive. All contracted verbs become uncontracted. For example, fón becomes fangen on analogy to the past participle. The verbs téon and téon become teiȝen and tieȝen, so you can now tell which is a type 1 or type 2 strong verb. A verb like 'ascian' becomes 'asken,' since it was pronounced 'as-ki-an' with a k, rather than 'ch' sound, and the -ian becomes -en.

Type 1 strong verbs change the í to ei, pronounced like modern English and German verbs write or schreiben. So, a verb like líðan to travel becomes leiðen.

Type 2 strong verbs change the éo to ie like in German, and regularize the past and past participle vowel to 'o'. Old English dréosan becomes driesen; the past goes from dreas/druron to dros/drosen, and the participle from gedroren to gedrosen, regularizing the 's'.

Type 3 strong verbs regularize the vowel of the singular, 'a' as the past tense vowel, and the vowel of the past participle into the past subjunctive. For example, helpan becomes helpen; hilpþ stays hilpþ; halp, hulpon becomes halp, halpen; the participle geholpen remains geholpen. The past subjunctive in Old English, hulpe, developed into holpe, so the past subjunctive would be hœlpe, with an umlaut like German.

Nouns

Masculine

Masculine nouns by and large were strong and weak:

Strong Nouns

Case/Number	OE sg.	NE sg.	OE pl.	NE pl.
Nom	stán	Stan	stánas	Stanes
Gen	stánes	Stanes	stána	Stanes
Dat	stáne	Stan(e)	stánum	Stanen
Acc	stán	Stan	stánas	Stanes

Old English generalized the masculine nominative plural into the accusative, while most other Germanic languages generalized the accusative plural. That's an easy way to explain why the -s plural survived in English and not other Germanic languages. Couple that with the Norman Conquest, with French generalizing the -s plural of the Latin accusative plural, and the tendency towards and -s plural is strengthened. Without that, it's possible that the -s plural might not have gone on. Most other Germanic languages with at least 2 plural forms have a distinct dative plural case if any of the cases are distinct. Icelandic has 4 plural forms

Weak Nouns

Case/Number	OE sg.	NE sg.	OE pl.	NE pl.
Nom	nama	Name	naman	Namen
Gen	naman	Namen	namena	Namen
Dat	naman	Namen	namum	Namen
Acc	naman	Namen	naman	Namen

If the weak noun had continued on as a distinct class, it would have weakened the endings to a schwa/e sound.

As in German, Old English nouns that ended in -el are weak in the plural:

• laden (to load) -> Lædel (ladle), plural Lædeln.

Feminine Nouns

Many feminine nouns ended in -u in the nominative; this would have weakened to -e as would the other endings of the singular, and the plural, similarly weakened, would have caused many feminine nouns to become weak in the plural so there would remain a distinction between the two.

Strong Nouns

Case/Number	OE sg.	NE sg.	OE pl.	NE pl.
Nom	coþu	Koðe	coþa	Koðen
Gen	coþe	Koðe	coþa	Koðen
Dat	coþe	Koðe	coþum	Koðen
Acc	coþe	Koðe	coþa	Koðen

A large number of feminine nouns would fall into this category, though a few have dropped the -e in the singular, as Brod, Broden (brood) did. Feminine nouns ending in -el/-er just add -n:

• Muskel -> Muskeln = mussel
• Feðer -> Feðern = feather

Feminine nouns ending in -en add -ne in the plural.

Feminine weak nouns all became strong in the singular, and retained their weak endings in the plural.

Verb Inflection

Like Old English, verbs have four inflections in the present: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular, and a common plural.

Present Indicative

Old English

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/we)	-e	-aþ
Second (þu/ge)	-est	-aþ
Third (he, heo, it / hie)	-eþ	-aþ

Just like in Old English and German, the 2nd and 3rd person singular have an umlaut of the stem vowel for strong verbs.

Niw English

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/wiȝ)	-e	-eþ
Second (þu/ȝiȝ)	-(e)st	-eþ
Third (he, schie, it / hje)	-(e)þ	-eþ

In Niw Englisch, the plural has weakened to 'eþ', and the 2nd and 3rd person singular, like modern German, regularly lose the 'e' unless the verb stem has a consonant cluster that would result in not being able to pronounce the ending without it. If you look at modern Saxon (Low German), you'll see the same pattern of 3 singular forms, and a common plural form.

Present Subjunctive

In Old English, the present subjunctive was either singular or plural:

Old English

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/we)	-e	-en
Second (þu/ge)	-e	-en
Third (he, heo, it / hie)	-e	-en

For Niw Englisch, the present subjunctive looks like the German present subjunctive:

Niw English

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/wiȝ)	-e	-en
Second (þu/ȝiȝ)	-est	-en
Third (he, schie, it / hje)	-e	-en

Had Old English similar influences as German, it would have been relatively reasonable that the '-est' ending of the 2nd person would be used in the subjunctive mood as well. This goes for the strong verb subjunctives also.

Example:

• findan->finde or finden; finden-> finde, findest, or finden (strong verb)
• ascian->ascie or ascien; asken-> aske, askest, or asken (weak verb)

Past Indicative

In Old English, the past tense of 'weak' verbs had a dental (d/t) suffix and the personal endings afterwards. With voiceless consonants like s or þ, it became a 't' instead. For class 2 weak verbs ending in -ian, the ending became -ode, -odest, -odon

Old English (Weak)

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/we)	-de	-don
Second (þu/ge)	-dest	-don
Third (he, heo, it / hie)	-de	-don

For Niw Englisch, all weak verbs have the following endings, the vowels all weakend to the 'e' (schwa) sound.

Niw English (Weak)

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/wiȝ)	-de	-den
Second (þu/ȝiȝ)	-dest	-den
Third (he, schie, it / hje)	-de	-den

There are no longer any distinctions between class 1a, 1b, and class 2 weak nouns. All weak nouns take these endings, but may insert 'e' between the verb stem and the ending to make it clearly pronounced. Similar to Old English, any sibilant (s, sch, z, c) will take a 't' instead of 'd' for the past tense marker, as will k/g/cg.

Example:

• cyssan-cysste -> kyssen-kysste
• hangian-hangode -> hangen-hangte (hankte)
• acealdian-acealdode -> akalden-akaldede; the 'e' was added to make sure the ending was pronounced.

Past Subjunctive

In Old English, the pat subjunctive was either singular or plural:

Old English (weak)

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/we)	-de	-den
Second (þu/ge)	-de	-den
Third (he, heo, it / hie)	-de	-den

For Niw Englisch, the past subjunctive looks like the German present subjunctive:

Niw English (weak)

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/wiȝ)	-de	-den
Second (þu/ȝiȝ)	-dest	-den
Third (he, schie, it / hje)	-de	-den

For strong verbs, the subjunctive operates like in modern German - endings in the present, umlaut plus endings in the past In Old English, the past subjunctive was either singular or plural for strong verbs with the past plural stem:

Old English (strong)

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/we)	holpe	holpen
Second (þu/ge)	holpe	holpen
Third (he, heo, it / hie)	holpe	holpen

For Niw Englisch, the past subjunctive looks like the German past subjunctive:

Niw English (strong)

Person/Number	Singular	Plural
First (ic/wiȝ)	hœlpe	hœlpen
Second (þu/ȝiȝ)	hœlpest	hœlpen
Third (he, schie, it / hje)	hœlpe	hœlpen