Template:ang-conj/documentation

Introduction

This template is used to provide the conjugation of Old English verbs. It is powered by Module:ang-verb. It should be used for all Old English verbs.

The usual format is as follows:

{{ang-conj|beran<s4>}}

What goes inside <> is the type of verb, in this case <s4> for a strong class-4 verb.

Parameters

Basic form

The template accepts one or more numbered parameters, each of which is normally of the form INFINITIVE<CLASS> but can also be of the form INFINITIVE<CLASS/KEY:VALUE/KEY2:VALUE2/...>. Multiple parameters can be given if the verb can be conjugated more than one way or can have more than one way of "pointing" it (i.e. adding macrons and overdots), e.g.:

• rǣdan: {{ang-conj|rǣdan<s7>|rǣdan<w1>}}
• mengan/menġan: {{ang-conj|mengan<w1>|menġan<w1>}}

The resulting table will have all forms of both conjugations, but with duplicate forms automatically filtered out.

Verb class

The verb class inside <> is specified as follows:

• <s1> through <s7> (strong verbs, class 1 through 7). If the verb has Verner alternation in its past tense and past participle, suffix the code with v, e.g. <s1v> for sċrīþan (“to move, to wander”) and <s2v> for ċēosan (“to choose”). This is not needed for contracted verbs (which always have Verner alternation) and in general for any verbs that need to be special-cased, such as hliehhan (“to laugh”), sċeþþan (“to injure”), ġenugan (“to suffice”). (Note that the module knows about all alternations between ċ/c and ġ/g, and will e.g. (a) correctly generate the principal parts of ċēosan as ċēosan, ċīes-, ċēas, cur-, coren, and (b) correctly generate the second-person singular present indicative of wyrċan (“to work”) as either wyrċest or wyrcst.)
• <w1> for weak class 1 verbs (infinitive normally in -an with an umlauted root vowel, along with some contracted verbs such as hēan (“to raise”), tȳn (“to teach”), þēon (“to perform, to do”)).
  • <w1a> to force class 1a (verbs with an original short root syllable, such as nerian (“to save”) (Proto-Germanic *nazjaną), trumman (“to perform”) (Proto-Germanic *trumjaną), settan (“to set”) (Proto-Germanic *satjaną) or leċġan (“to lay”) (Proto-Germanic *lagjaną)
  • <w1b> to force class 1b (verbs with an original long root syllable, such as dēman (“to judge”) (Proto-Germanic *dōmijaną), sendan (“to send”) (Proto-Germanic *sandijaną), or fyllan (“to fill”) (Proto-Germanic *fullijaną). The explicit use of <w1b> is necessary with verbs like fyllan (“to fill”), spillan (“to destroy”), wemman (“to defile”), etc. because they can't be distinguished formally from weak class 1a verbs with short root vowel followed by a geminate consonant, and class 1a is assumed in this circumstance.
• <w2> for weak class 2 verbs (infinitive normally in -ian with a non-umlauted root vowel, along with some contracted verbs such as smēaġan (“to consider”), twēoġan (“to doubt”)).
• <w3> for weak class 3 verbs (there are only four such basic verbs, habban (“to have”), libban (“to live”), seċġan (“to say”), hyċġan (“to think”), plus numerous derived prefixed verbs).
• <pp> for preterite-present verbs such as cunnan (“to know (how to)”), witan (“to know”), durran (“to dare”), āgan (“to own”), etc.
• <i> for irregular verbs such as dōn (“to do”), bēon (“to be”), wesan (“to be”), willan (“to want”).

Additional parameters

Some verbs, primarily weak verbs, need additional help, indicated by placing extra parameters of the form KEY:VALUE (or KEY:VALUE1,VALUE2,...) inside of <>, separated from each other and from the verb class by slashes. Examples:

• byċġan (“to buy”): {{ang-conj|byċġan<w1/papp:boht>}}. Here, papp means "past tense and past participle"; this verb has irregular past forms, which need to be indicated.
• sellan (“to give”): {{ang-conj|sellan<w1/pres23:syle,sell/papp:seald>}}. Here papp is as before and pres23 is the stem of the 2nd and 3rd singular present indicative, which can be either þū sylest or þū selst "you sell", and similarly hē syleþ or hē selþ "he sells" (the change from *sellst/*sellþ -> selst/selþ is automatic). Note that two stems are given here, separated by a comma.
• nemnan (“to name, to call”): {{ang-conj|nemnan<w1/past:nemd/pp:nemed,nemned>}}. Here, separate values past (past tense) and pp (past participle) are specified, as the verb has irregular past tense iċ nemde etc. and irregular past participle (ġe)nemed, (ġe)nemned.
• þrēotan (“to weary”): {{ang-conj|þrēotan<s2/impers:1>}}. This verb is impersonal, indicated by impers:1. Only third-person singular and non-finite forms exist.
• hearmcweþan (“to revile, to slander”): {{ang-conj|hearmcweþan<s5v/ge:0>}}. This verb has a noun hearm prefixed to it, which disallows adding ġe- at the beginning of the past participle, as indicated by ge:0. All standard verbal prefixes are recognized automatically, but verbs with nonstandard prefixes or with roots that look like prefixes must use ge. See below.

Note that overriding parameters specifying irregular forms are not usually necessary for strong, preterite-present and irregular verbs because the module knows about all such verbs with irregular forms and special-cases them.

The following overriding parameters are recognized for strong and weak verbs (preterite-present and irregular verbs are entirely special-cased and don't currently recognize these parameters):

• presa: The non-past stem(s) used when an a normally follows (e.g. infinitive, plural present indicative); should include the a; the default is formed by removing the final n from the infinitive
• prese: The non-past stem(s) used when an e normally follows (e.g. second infinitive, present participle, 1st singular present indicative, present subjunctive); should include the e; does not include the 2nd/3rd singular present indicative; the default is formed by replacing the final a (if present) of the presa value with e, but for some verb classes it is different (e.g. for smēaġean, the default value is smēaġe not *smēaġee, which would be derived by mechanically applying the previous rule to the presa value smēaġea)
• pres23: The stem(s) used for the 2nd/3rd singular present indicative; should include everything except the final -st or -þ (i.e. include the thematic vowel if present); note that if the stem ends in a consonant, various assimilations will automatically happen between the stem and the -st/-þ endings; the default depends on the verb type and class, and will include umlaut in strong verbs
• impsg: The actual form(s) used for the imperative singular
• pres1456: Use the specified value for both presa and prese (which usually only makes sense for contracted verbs)
• pres: Use the specified value for all of presa, prese, pres23 and impsg (which usually only makes sense for contracted verbs)
• pastsg (for strong verbs only): The actual form(s) used for the 1st/3rd singular past indicative
• pastpl (for strong verbs only): The stem(s) used for all remaining past-tense forms
• past: For weak verbs, the stem(s) used for all past-tense forms; for strong verbs, uses the specified value for both pastsg and pastpl (which only makes sense for certain strong verbs, such as those of class 6 and 7)
• pp: The actual form(s) used for the past participle; will optionally be prefixed with ġe- if appropriate (see below)
• papp (for weak verbs only): Use the specified value for both past and pp

The following additional overriding parameters are recognized for all verbs:

• ge: Specify ge:1 to indicate that ġe- can optionally be present in the past participle, and ge:0 to indicate that it cannot be present (see below)
• impers: Specify impers:1 to indicate that the verb is impersonal (the only personal forms are third-person singular)

In addition, individual forms of any verb can be overridden, using the following parameters:

• infinitive: Infinitive
• infinitive2: Second infinitive (minus the preceding tō)
• 1sg_pres_indc: 1st singular present indicative
• 2sg_pres_indc: 2nd singular present indicative
• 3sg_pres_indc: 3rd singular present indicative
• pl_pres_indc: Plural present indicative
• sg_pres_subj: Singular present subjunctive
• pl_pres_subj: Plural present subjunctive
• 1sg_past_indc: 1st singular past indicative
• 2sg_past_indc: 2nd singular past indicative
• 3sg_past_indc: 3rd singular past indicative
• pl_past_indc: Plural past indicative
• sg_past_subj: Singular past subjunctive
• pl_past_subj: Plural past subjunctive
• sg_impr: Singular imperative
• pl_impr: Plural imperative
• pres_ptc: Present participle
• past_ptc: Past participle (if specified in this fashion, overrides automatic ġe-prefixing)

Note that all of the above parameters except for ge accept a list of forms or stems, separated by commas.

Prefixing with ġe-

Normally, the module automatically determines whether an optional ġe- prefix is allowed to occur in the past participle, depending on whether the verb has a prefix (where ġe- is disallowed) or has no prefix (where ġe- is allowed). When ġe- is allowed, the past participle is indicated as e.g. (ġe)dēmed (for dēman (“to judge”)), where the prefix links to the prefixed form ġedēmed of the past participle and the remainder to the non-prefixed form dēmed. When ġe- is disallowed, only the non-prefixed form appears, e.g. foredēmed (for foredēman (“to prejudge”)). The choice of ġe- or no ġe- can be overridden using the parameter ge:1 (yes ġe-) or ge:0 (no ġe-). For example:

• bedecian (“to beg”): {{ang-conj|bedecian<w2/ge:1>}}

Here, the verb looks to the module like it's composed of a prefix be- plus a main verb *decian, but in fact be- is part of the root, so we indicate that ġe- is allowed. Another example is āgnettan, which is composed of āgen + -ettan, not of ā- + *gnettan. The opposite specification ge:0 is required when the module doesn't recognize a prefix, such as midþolian (“to sympathize”) (mid- is not a recognized verbal prefix), hearmcweþan (“to slander, to revile”) (hearm- is not a recognized verbal prefix), ġeānian (“to unite”) (the module won't recognize ġe- when followed by a, o, ā or ō, because ea, eo, eā, eō normally indicate diphthongs; compare ġeōmrian (“to lament, to complain”)).

The following is the complete list (as of Dec 2 2019) of the recognized prefixes; the up-to-date list can be found embedded in Module:ang-common.

Prefix	Notes
ā-
æt-
æfter-
and-
an-
be-	not when followed by a, o, ā or ō
ed-
fore-	not when followed by a, o, ā or ō
forþ-	also forð-
for-
fram-
ġeond-
ġe-	not when followed by a, o, ā or ō
in-
mis-
ofer-
of-
on-
oþ-	also oð-
tō-
under-
un-
up-
ūt-
wiþer-	also wiðer- and corresponding variants with ƿ
wiþ-	also wið- and corresponding variants with ƿ
ymb-
þurh-	also ðurh-