How did the class of strong verbs change in the course of ME? How did newly borrowed verbs form their past tense in Middle English?
-> Strong verbs change stem vowels- Stems tend to have same consonants within one paradigm (analogical leveling) o Freeze – froze – frozen- OE: two different past forms -> ME: one general past form (analogical leveling) o Write-wrote-written- Strong verbs become weak (analogical extension)- Some strong verbs die out -> newly burrowed verbs follow weak verb paradigm- End of ME: classes of strong verbs no longer recognizable o Verbs are no longer called strong/weak