Table 14

Participle II of most verbs preserved -e- before the dental suffix, though in some groups it was lost (types (e), and (f)).

Two groups of verbs in Class I – types (e) and (f) had one more peculiarity – an interchange of root-vowels: the Infinitive had a mutated vowel like all the verbs of Class I, while the other two forms retained the original non-mutated vowel – probably these forms had no stem-suffix at the time of palatal mutation. The diphthong [ea] in tealde (type e) is the result of breaking before [ld]; it is found in the WS dialect, the Anglian forms being talde, e-tald. The absence of the nasal [n] in the Past and Participle II and the long vowel of pyncan – pūhte, e-pūht is the result of the loss of nasal consonants before fric­atives (see phonetic changes).

The verbs of Glass II were built with the help of the stem-suffix -ō, or -ōj- and are known as ō-stems. Their most conspicuous feature – the element -o- before the dental suffix in the Past and Participle II – is a remnant of the stem-suffix. The Infinitives of all the verbs of Class II ended in -ian but the root-vowel was not affected because at the time of palatal mutation, the verbs preserved the full stem-suffix -ōj- and the long [o:] protected the root-vowel from assimilation. (Pre-written reconstructed forms of the verbs of Class II are *lōkōjan, lufōjan, OE lōcian, lufian, NE look, love).

Class III was made up of a few survivals of the PG third and fourth classes of weak verbs, mostly - ej-stems. The doubling of the consonants in the Infinitive and the mutated vowels are accounted for by the presence of the element -i/-j- in some forms in Early OE.