More restricted is the relative use of whos, whom, which are originally interrogatives, though both are found very early in ME. as personal relatives. Examples of the objective after prepositions are: my Lady, of quom... VI 93; God, fro whom ... IX 328 f.; my Sone... in whome XVI 81 f. The possessive occurs in Seynt Magne... yn whos wurschyp I 90 f.; I am ... the same, whos good XII b 78 f.; and, compounded with the article, in Morpheüs, the whos nature XII a 113. The nominative who retains its interrogative meaning, e.g. But who ben more heretikis? XI b 77 f.; or is used as an indefinite, e.g. a tasse of grene stickes... to selle, who that wolde hem beie XII b 22 ff.; but it is never used as a relative; and probably what in XVI 174 is better taken as in apposition to myghtis than as a true relative.
§ 13. VERB. Syntactically the most interesting point in the history of the ME. verb is the development of the compound tenses with have, be, will, shall, may, might, mun, can, gan. But the flexional forms of the simple tenses are most subject to local variation, and, being relatively common, afford good evidence of dialect. Throughout the period, despite the crossings and confusions that are to be expected in a time of uncertainty and experiment, the distinction between strong and weak verbs is maintained; and it will be convenient to deal first with the inflexions common to both classes, and then to notice the forms peculiar to one or the other.
(i) The Infinitive had already in Northumbrian OE. lost final -n: drīfa 'to drive'. Hence in ME. of the North and N. Midlands the ending is -e, which becomes silent at varying rates during the fourteenth century; e.g. dryue I 171, to luf IV a 17. In the South and S. Midlands the common ending is -e, e.g. telle III 3, which usually remains syllabic to the end of the century; but -(e)n is also found, especially in verse to make a rime or to avoid hiatus: e.g. sein (: aȝein) XII a 27; to parte and ȝiven half his good XII b 201.
(ii) The Present Participle (OE. drīfende) in the North and N. Midlands ends in -and(e), though -yng(e), -ing(e) is beginning to appear in V, VII, XVI, XVII. In S. Midlands the historical ending -ende still prevails in Gower; but Chaucer has more commonly -yng(e); and in IX, XI, both late texts, only -yng(e) appears. In the South -yng(e) is established as early as the beginning of the century, e.g. in II.
N.B. Carefully distinguish the verbal noun which always ends in -yng(e). Early confusion resulted in the transference of this ending to the participle.
(iii) Present Indicative.
(a) Singular: OE. 1 drīfe, 2 drīf(e)s(t), 3 drīf(e)ð (late Northumbrian drīfes).
In ME. -e, -est, -eþ are still the regular endings for the South and most of the Midlands. Shortened forms like fint = findeþ II. 239; stant = standeþ XII a 74 are commonest in the South, where in OE. they were a feature of West Saxon and Kentish as distinguished from Anglian. Distinct are the Northern and N. Midland mas(e) 'makes', tas 'takes', with contracted infinitives ma, ta; and bus 'behoves', which Chaucer uses in his imitation of Northern English, Reeves Tale 172.
In N. Midlands the modern 3rd sg. -(e)s is common (V, VI, but not in earlier I). Farther North it is invariable (IV, X, XVI, XVII). The distribution of -es as the ending of the 2nd sg. is the same, and it is extended even to the 1st person.
(b) Plural: OE. drīfað (late Northumbrian drīfas).