Читать книгу A Book of Middle English - J. A. Burrow - Страница 53

This is particularly irregular, and has wide variation in form in different regions. Some parts of the present indicative have two forms from different stems; where there are alternatives the b‐ forms are often used in a future sense, as in swa þe bið alre laððest, ‘as shall be most hateful to you’, 3/152.

To illustrate the variety, here are the forms of the verb ‘to be’ in the language of the Ancrene Wisse and Gawain:

	Ancrene Wisse	Gawain
infinitive	beon	be, bene
present indicative
sg.	1	am, beo	am
	2	art, bist	art
	3	is, bið	is, betz
pl.	beoð	ar(n), ben
present subjunctive
sg.	beo	be
pl.	beon	be(n)
past indicative
sg.	1	wes	watz, was
	2	were	watz, were
	3	wes	watz, was
pl.	weren	wer(en)
past subjunctive
sg.	were	wer(e)
pl.	weren	wer(e), wern
past participle	ibeon	ben(e)

Chaucer gives his Northern students is throughout the singular as extreme Northernisms.

Negative forms may be illustrated from Sir Orfeo: present nam, nis; past nas, nere.