It reads odd to me that the dative died (forþferde) when really it conquered (ofereode) the neighboring territory (rice) of the accusative (wregendlic) and took over its forms (meodosetla ofteah). Þæt wæs god fiell!
I’ve read that one of the reasons case markers and word endings tended to atrophy was the large numbers of non-native speakers in Britain, from the Norman conquest onwards, or even the Romans. The result was a mix of peoples who needed to communicate despite not speaking each other’s languages. In the same way as many English speakers struggle with, say, French - getting the stem of the word right but not always getting the endings right, they sort of mumble or drop them - yet still managing to make themselves understood.
That may well have been a factor — indeed I think the large number of Old Norse speakers in some parts of England was almost certainly a factor in some of the changes we see from Old English to Middle English.
But I also think this explanation has occasionally been overstated — for example, many of the same kinds of changes (reduction and loss of unstressed vowels, for instance) also happened in the other Germanic languages without the situation of contact between different groups of speakers we see in England. So I'd say it's a possibility but not a necessity.
Also the earlier combination of Anglo-Saxon etc. vs. various Viking dialects. All Germanic, but different.
Certainly putting Norman speakers in charge of Germanic speakers would have muddled that, and so it continued into the 14th century when the endings were too confusing and just putting it in order made it easier.
Good stuff, explained so well. And makes sense. But then again I never really understood how English worked until I learned German from expert teachers!
Thank you! Learning German gives a wonderful perspective on English — I've heard so many people say that learning German made "whom" finally start to click.
Modern German has the same four cases as Old English—nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative—but interestingly, it seems that the genitive is dying out, at least in some contexts, in favor of the dative. There is a series of German-grammar books on the subject entitled Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod (The Dative is the Death of the Genitive).
Another great post. A gentle introduction to cases, and an explanation of how we lost them, yet still have them in pronouns. Also, the reason why we have just the objective case (if that’s the correct grammatical term still) now.
I have to say the the degree of endings of vowels tending to schwa must have been pretty variable though, as when I say purpose, compass and census, compass does have more of an “a” sound, but the other two do tend to “uh”. Although, that may just be me (I also pronounce the “d” in Wednesday, for example. Come to think of it, I didn’t always, though, I remember being influenced at one point by spelling — never a good thing to rely on in English). The vowels, are just the way I do it without any influence.
Thank you! You're right to point out that which vowels go to "schwa" in Modern English aren't identical across all dialects. Tricky to find examples which will work for all English speakers!
So I’m sure this isn’t a counterexample, but for the grammatically unlearned, how would we break down the last two sentences of something like this:
After breaking up their fight, I asked who started biting first.
“The dog,” said the cat.
The dog said, “the cat.”
Obviously in the written form punctuation makes it unambiguous, but I was still wondering what parts of speech these are, and how we describe what helps us understand the distinction in spoken language.
Is the structure of “‘the dog,’ said the cat” a hangover from a more order-flexible English, or something to do with the Normans, or what?
The "... said the cat" word order, where the verb of saying precedes its subject, is a holdover from Old English.
The parts of speech in both of your examples are all the same, but the underlying grammatical structure, as revealed by the intonation, is different. The punctuation is an attempt to represent this intonational difference in writing, but when we analyse sentences like these, we should treat the intonation as in fact a core part of the sentence, as much as the order of the words is.
That’s so interesting that that word order hung around for like, quoting. Are there other sorts of verbs it survived in? It’s definitely nonstandard in spoken English, why did it stick around in writing? Inertia in styles? I guess written language evolves more slowly by nature, or loses old structures more slowly.
Not really a grammatical parsing, but I tried saying both and I think I tend to add a bit of stress on the subjects in each case, but I’m not sure if I did that because I was conscious of the question you asked, or if I did it naturally.
Curious. If I understand correctly you're saying that English was more Latin like because it used cases, but at the same time the marker for those cases is an article and Latin doesn't have articles. Shouldn't this more correctly be titled, when English was more German-like, given that German has both articles and cases? There would also be a parallel here between ancient Greek and modern Greek, which also lost the dative cas and uses articles.
Highly enjoyable essay! Five years ago, I naively tackled Russian not knowing the first thing about cases and having never even heard of a “case system” before. Oh my. Took a solid 6 months to wrap my head around the concept. Having now mastered it, the case system is one of my favorite features of Russian. And I feel as if English is somewhat impoverished by its almost total disappearance. Ah well, the horse left that particular barn a long, long time ago and isn’t coming back!
It reads odd to me that the dative died (forþferde) when really it conquered (ofereode) the neighboring territory (rice) of the accusative (wregendlic) and took over its forms (meodosetla ofteah). Þæt wæs god fiell!
Hahahaha, þæt wæs good fiell!
I’ve read that one of the reasons case markers and word endings tended to atrophy was the large numbers of non-native speakers in Britain, from the Norman conquest onwards, or even the Romans. The result was a mix of peoples who needed to communicate despite not speaking each other’s languages. In the same way as many English speakers struggle with, say, French - getting the stem of the word right but not always getting the endings right, they sort of mumble or drop them - yet still managing to make themselves understood.
That may well have been a factor — indeed I think the large number of Old Norse speakers in some parts of England was almost certainly a factor in some of the changes we see from Old English to Middle English.
But I also think this explanation has occasionally been overstated — for example, many of the same kinds of changes (reduction and loss of unstressed vowels, for instance) also happened in the other Germanic languages without the situation of contact between different groups of speakers we see in England. So I'd say it's a possibility but not a necessity.
The "creolization" theory of English grammatical change. I've read this as well.
Also the earlier combination of Anglo-Saxon etc. vs. various Viking dialects. All Germanic, but different.
Certainly putting Norman speakers in charge of Germanic speakers would have muddled that, and so it continued into the 14th century when the endings were too confusing and just putting it in order made it easier.
Good stuff, explained so well. And makes sense. But then again I never really understood how English worked until I learned German from expert teachers!
Thank you! Learning German gives a wonderful perspective on English — I've heard so many people say that learning German made "whom" finally start to click.
That's so true about "whom"!
Modern German has the same four cases as Old English—nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative—but interestingly, it seems that the genitive is dying out, at least in some contexts, in favor of the dative. There is a series of German-grammar books on the subject entitled Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod (The Dative is the Death of the Genitive).
Even German isn't immune to the decline and Fall of cases.
(So that non-German-speaking readers can appreciate the pun — Fall is German for case)
WOWZA! I took Latin in high school, so it was possible for me to follow this discussion pretty well. Thank you! You are terrific!
Thank you so much!
Another great post. A gentle introduction to cases, and an explanation of how we lost them, yet still have them in pronouns. Also, the reason why we have just the objective case (if that’s the correct grammatical term still) now.
I have to say the the degree of endings of vowels tending to schwa must have been pretty variable though, as when I say purpose, compass and census, compass does have more of an “a” sound, but the other two do tend to “uh”. Although, that may just be me (I also pronounce the “d” in Wednesday, for example. Come to think of it, I didn’t always, though, I remember being influenced at one point by spelling — never a good thing to rely on in English). The vowels, are just the way I do it without any influence.
Thank you! You're right to point out that which vowels go to "schwa" in Modern English aren't identical across all dialects. Tricky to find examples which will work for all English speakers!
So I’m sure this isn’t a counterexample, but for the grammatically unlearned, how would we break down the last two sentences of something like this:
After breaking up their fight, I asked who started biting first.
“The dog,” said the cat.
The dog said, “the cat.”
Obviously in the written form punctuation makes it unambiguous, but I was still wondering what parts of speech these are, and how we describe what helps us understand the distinction in spoken language.
Is the structure of “‘the dog,’ said the cat” a hangover from a more order-flexible English, or something to do with the Normans, or what?
The "... said the cat" word order, where the verb of saying precedes its subject, is a holdover from Old English.
The parts of speech in both of your examples are all the same, but the underlying grammatical structure, as revealed by the intonation, is different. The punctuation is an attempt to represent this intonational difference in writing, but when we analyse sentences like these, we should treat the intonation as in fact a core part of the sentence, as much as the order of the words is.
That’s so interesting that that word order hung around for like, quoting. Are there other sorts of verbs it survived in? It’s definitely nonstandard in spoken English, why did it stick around in writing? Inertia in styles? I guess written language evolves more slowly by nature, or loses old structures more slowly.
Not really a grammatical parsing, but I tried saying both and I think I tend to add a bit of stress on the subjects in each case, but I’m not sure if I did that because I was conscious of the question you asked, or if I did it naturally.
Considering most people weren't literate, I think the stress and pointing at things conveyed the meaning.
I really love your articles and the style you write in, i’m so fascinated by language and reading your work just inspires me more so thank you!!
Curious. If I understand correctly you're saying that English was more Latin like because it used cases, but at the same time the marker for those cases is an article and Latin doesn't have articles. Shouldn't this more correctly be titled, when English was more German-like, given that German has both articles and cases? There would also be a parallel here between ancient Greek and modern Greek, which also lost the dative cas and uses articles.
Highly enjoyable essay! Five years ago, I naively tackled Russian not knowing the first thing about cases and having never even heard of a “case system” before. Oh my. Took a solid 6 months to wrap my head around the concept. Having now mastered it, the case system is one of my favorite features of Russian. And I feel as if English is somewhat impoverished by its almost total disappearance. Ah well, the horse left that particular barn a long, long time ago and isn’t coming back!
Fascinating!! ☝️😎