Chapter IV: Order of Words

20. The order of words in Old English is more like that of Modern German than of Modern English. Yet it is only the Transposed order that the student will feel to be at all un-English; and the Transposed order, even before the period of the Norman Conquest, was fast yielding place to the Normal order.

The three divisions of order are (1) Normal, (2) Inverted, and (3) Transposed.

(1) Normal order = subject + predicate. In Old English, the Normal order is found chiefly in independent clauses. The predicate is followed by its modifiers: #Sê hwæl bið micle læ:ssa þonne ôðre hwalas#, _That whale is much smaller than other whales_; #Ond hê geseah twâ scipu#, _And he saw two ships_.

(2) Inverted order = predicate + subject. This order occurs also in independent clauses, and is employed (_a_) when some modifier of the predicate precedes the predicate, the subject being thrown behind. The words most frequently causing Inversion in Old English prose are #þâ# _then_, #þonne# _then_, and #þæ:r# _there_: #Ðâ fôr hê#, _Then went he_; #Ðonne ærnað hy: ealle tôweard þæ:m fêo#, _Then gallop they all toward the property_; #ac þæ:r bið medo genôh#, _but there is mead enough_.

Inversion is employed (_b_) in interrogative sentences: #Lufast ðû mê?# _Lovest thou me?_ and (_c_) in imperative sentences: #Cume ðîn rîce#, _Thy kingdom come_.

(3) Transposed order = subject ... predicate. That is, the predicate comes last in the sentence, being preceded by its modifiers. This is the order observed in dependent clauses:[1] #Ðonne cymeð sê man sê þæt swiftoste hors hafað#, _Then comes the man that has the swiftest horse_ (literally, _that the swiftest horse has_); #Ne mêtte hê æ:r nân gebûn land, siþþan hê from his âgnum hâm fôr#, _Nor did he before find any cultivated land, after he went from his own home_ (literally, _after he from his own home went_).

[Footnote 1: But in the _Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan_, in
which the style is apparently more that of oral than of written
discourse, the Normal is more frequent than the Transposed order
in dependent clauses. In his other writings Alfred manifests a
partiality for the Transposed order in dependent clauses, except
in the case of substantival clauses introduced by #þæt#. Such
clauses show a marked tendency to revert to their Normal _oratio
recta_ order. The norm thus set by the indirect affirmative
clause seems to have proved an important factor in the ultimate
disappearance of Transposition from dependent clauses. The
influence of Norman French helped only to consummate forces that
were already busily at work.]

21. Two other peculiarities in the order of words require a brief notice.

(1) Pronominal datives and accusatives usually precede the predicate: #Hê hine oferwann#, _He overcame him_ (literally, _He him overcame_); #Dryhten him andwyrde#, _The Lord answered him_. But substantival datives and accusatives, as in Modern English, follow the predicate. The following sentence illustrates both orders: #Hy: genâmon Ioseph, ond hine gesealdon cîpemonnum, ond hy: hine gesealdon in Êgypta lond#, _They took Joseph, and sold him to merchants, and they sold him into Egypt_ (literally, _They took Joseph, and him sold to merchants, and they him sold into Egyptians' land_).

NOTE.--The same order prevails in the case of pronominal
nominatives used as predicate nouns: #Ic hit eom#, _It is I_
(literally, _I it am_); #Ðû hit eart#, _It is thou_ (literally,
_Thou it art_).

(2) The attributive genitive, whatever relationship it expresses, usually precedes the noun which it qualifies: #Breoton is gârsecges îgland#, _Britain is an island of the ocean_ (literally, _ocean's island_); #Swilce hit is êac berende on wecga ôrum#, _Likewise it is also rich in ores of metals_ (literally, _metals' ores_); #Cyninga cyning#, _King of kings_ (literally, _Kings' king_); #Gê witon Godes rîces gery:ne#, _Ye know the mystery of the kingdom of God_ (literally, _Ye know God's kingdom's mystery_).

A preposition governing the word modified by the genitive, precedes the genitive:[2] #On ealdra manna sægenum#, _In old men's sayings_; #Æt ðæ:ra stræ:ta endum#, _At the ends of the streets_ (literally, _At the streets' ends_); #For ealra ðînra hâlgena lufan#, _For all thy saints' love_. See, also, § 94, (5).

[Footnote 2: The positions of the genitive are various. It
frequently follows its noun: #þâ bearn þâra Aðeniensa#, _The
children of the Athenians_. It may separate an adjective and a
noun: #Ân ly:tel sæ:s earm#, _A little arm of (the) sea_. The
genitive may here be construed as an adjective, or part of a
compound = _A little sea-arm_; #Mid monegum Godes gifum#, _With
many God-gifts_ = _many divine gifts_.]