Bēon-wesan To be [ˈbeːon ˈwezɑn]

Contents 1. Bēon/wesan as verb “to be” in Old English a) Etemologhy b) Condugation 2. The verb “to be” in Middle English a) Forms b) Cojugation c) Using as auxiliary verb d) Usage in different parts of the country 2. The verb “to be” in Early New English b) Some aspects of practice the form “art” c) Using as auxiliaries 3. Forms of the verb “to be” in Modern English Conclusion

The verb "to be" in Old English was a compound made up of different sources. Bēon and wesan were the two infinitive forms, though they were only used in certain tenses. Bēon was used in the present tense to express permanent truths (the "gnomic present"), while wesan was used for the present participle and the preterite. In addition, there was a set of "simple present" forms, for which no infinitive existed.

Etymology The simple present forms go back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”), *es- (first-person *ēsmi, third-person *ēsti, from an earlier *h₁esmi, *h₁esti). Cognates include: Old Saxon is; Dutch is; Old High German ist, sind; German ist, sind; Old Norse em, est, es; Gothic (im), (is), (ist); Avestan (ahmi) (Persian است (ast)); Greek εἰμί (eimi), εῖ, εστί; Latin esse, sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt; Slavic *jesmь (Old Church Slavonic єстъ, Russian есть); Baltic *es- (Lithuanian esu, Latvian esmu, esi),; Albanian jam.

Conjugation eg. Þæt wæs gōd cyning 1st-person singular eom · bēo/bēom 2nd-person singular eart · bist wǣre 3rd-person singular is · biþ plural sind, sindon, sint · bēoþ · earon wǣron subjunctive present preterite singular sīe · bēo sīen · bēon wǣren imperative wes · bēo wesaþ · bēoþ participle wesende unattested Conjugation eg. Þæt wæs gōd cyning

New forms that start with “-ar” Middle English “to be” wesan beo Used throughout the preterete in both indicative & subjunctive Made up the infinitive, particioles, and imperetive forms; Were used to a lesser extent in the present indicative (through more commonly in the present subjunctive) New forms that start with “-ar” Used in the present indiocative Forms of OE dialects of Northumbria & Mercia aron earon Possibly influenced by Old Norse forms, through these forms were olso part of Germanic and may have simply arisen directly without outside inflkuance

CONJUGATION

The perfect was formed with the help of the auxiliary verbs haven and ben, which had lost their original meanings ‘to have’ and ‘to be’, and Participle II of the notional verb; e.g.: … he hadde half his cours y-seyled… ‘he has sailed half his way’; at hight was come in-to that hostelrye wel nyne and twenty in a companye of sondry folk… ‘at a company came to that tavern - they were twenty-nine in number’.

In the 14th century the growth of continuous forms started In the 14th century the growth of continuous forms started. The continuous forms were produced with the help of the auxiliary verb ben and Participle I of the notional verb; e.g.: Singinge he was, or floytinge, al the day ‘All the day he was singing or playing the flute’. The analytical form of the passive voice was produced with the help of the auxiliary verb ben and Participle II of the notional verb. Only transitive verbs were used in the passive verb. Yet the scholars mark that not only the direct object but also the indirect non-prepositional object of the active construction might be transformed into the subject of the passive sentence; e.g.: he was geven his lyf ‘he was given his life’

Some parts of present indicative had two forms from different stems; Moreover, The verb “to be” in Mid English had wide variation in form in different regions. Some parts of present indicative had two forms from different stems; Where there were alternatives the b- forms were often used in a future sense, as in “As shall be most helpful to you”

Interesting to know: In the Middle English Northern dialect, was occurred frequently with plural subjects, particularly with existential there and in relative clauses, but seldom adjacent to a plural personal pronoun subject (Forsström 1948:207). With regard to other dialects, was is used very occasionally in the plural in the West Midlands dialect (Forsström 1948:167). Pietsch (2005:128, 150) argues that the Northern was/were variation developed in analogy to the Northern Subject Rule, according to which present tense verbs took -s with all subjects except I, we, you, and they when these were verb adjacent. Applied to was/were variation in the third person plural, this would predict: the words was spoken, they were married but they, he understood, was married. As early as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Northern -s/was with plural subjects spread south, and is found in e.g. Shakespeare, as shown by Visser (1963:72). He also shows that throughout the history of English particular types of plural subject have encouraged -s/was irrespective of region, such as existential there, and two subjects linked by and (Visser 1963:74, 80-81), eg.: that their was some Words In 17th century this tendency went down.

The forms of the verb “to be” in the language of the Ancrene Wisse and Gawain

Chauser gaved his Northern students is throught singular as extreme Northernism. Negative forms may be illusrtrated from Ser Orfeo: Present nam, nis; Past nas, nere.

The Forms of the Verb “to be” in Early New English Present Past Singular 1st person am was 2nd person art wert 3rd person is Plural are were

The forms art and wert agreed with the personal pronoun thou, e.g.: Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners . (Song of Solomon 6, 4). I grant thou wert not married to my muse... (Shakespeare. Sonnet 82).

Occasionally these forms could be used even without the pronoun thou when the 2nd person was implied, e.g.: After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy ame. (St. Matthew 6, 9).

Alongside with the verb to have as the auxiliary for the perfect forms the verb to be was used, e.g.: My beloved is gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies (Song of Solomon 6, 2). Thy silver is become dross (окалина, шлак), thy wine mixed with water (Isaiah 1, 22). In contemporary English only the expression to be gone is a trace of the old perfect form with the auxiliary verb to be.

The continuous forms have been gradually developing in the New English period. S.Potter marks that “in some ways the supersession of simple by progressive forms can be regarded as the continuation of a long process. Progressive forms are not new. They were used by the nameless author of ‘Beowulf’ and by King Alfred in his translations... They were used by Shakespeare, but not frequently. Whereas, for instance, the boatswain (in The Tempest, I, 1, 41) asks Sebastian ‘What do you here?’ one would now say ‘What are you doing here?’ And whereas Polonius (in Hamlet, II, 2, 195) asks ‘What do you read, my lord?’ one would now say ‘What are you reading, my lord?’” (Potter 1969, 121). Nevertheless the continuous (or progressive) forms are quite common in Shakespeare’s language, e.g.: The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, And so my paten (диск) back again is swerving. (Shakespeare. Sonnet 87).

Forms of the verb “to be” In Modern English Present Past Particle II Singular 1st person am was been 3rd person is Plural are were 2nd person

CONCLUSION The verb “To be” is said to be the most protean of the English language, constantly changing form, sometimes without much of a discernible pattern. It had made its own form anomalous (irregular) verb (bēon/wesan) of synthetical Old English to the irregular, auxiliary and linking verb “to be” in analytical Modern English. Through this course it had changed its forms and lost a range of them, but preserved suppletive origin and employing two separate roots, moreover had taken new forsm start “-ar” which latter became are.