The weak declension of nouns

Weak nouns had consonant stems, the most representation of them was the n -stem. Nouns belonging to this declension had the flexion an in all the cases of the singular except Nominative.

Masculine Feminine Neuter

Sing Plur Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur.

N nama naman ‘name’ cwene cwenan’woman’ēa3e ēa3an ‘eye’

G naman namena cwenan cwenena ēa3an ē a3ena

D naman namum cwenan cwenum ēa3an ēa3ena

A naman naman cwenan cwenan ēa3e ēa3an

A separate group of nouns.

In OE as in other Indo-European languages there was a separate group of nouns which were quite different from all the other nouns by their morphological structure. This group of nouns with a consonant stem remained in English for many centuries and still exists in MnE (the group of nouns forming their plural forms by means of vowel gradation: man - men, foot - feet). The noun of this group had the i - umlaut in the Dative case singular and in the Nominative and Accusative cases plural:

N man(n) men(n) fõt fêt tõƥ tēƥ

G mannes manna fõtes fõta tõƥes toƥa

D men(n) mannum fêt fõtum tēp tõƥum

A man(n) men(n) fõt fēt tõp tēƥ

Feminine nouns of this group with a short root syllable in the Nominative case singular have the ending u and those having a long root syllable have no ending at all:

N hnutu (a nut) hnyte bõc bēc

G hnute hnuta bõce bõca

D hnute hnutum bēc bõcum

A hnute hnyte bõc bēc

r - stem. This group consists of nouns both feminine and masculine denoting relationship. In the singular they are usually unchangeable and in the plural they are declined as belonging to a - stem;

N fæder fæderas dochtor dohtor, -tra, -tru

G fæder, es fædera dohtor dohtra

D fæder fæderum dehter dohtrum

A fæder fæderas dohtor dohtor, -tra, -tru

es - stem. There more than ten nouns of the neuter gender in this group, all of them having the traces of rhotctism: the r originated from the suffix -es:

N cild ‘child’ cild, cildru lamb lanbru

G cildes cilda, cildra lambes lambra

D cilde cildum lambe lambrum

A cild cild, cildru lamb lambru

Old English Adjectives

Old English adjectives had the grammatical categories of gender, number and case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and partly, instrumental).OE adjectives as well as OE nouns had two types of declension: strong and weak.

An adjective was considered to be strong if neither demonstrative pronoun nor the definite article preceded it. Strong adjectives had vowel stems. Their stems coincided with those of nouns. An adjective was considered to be weak if there was either a demonstrative pronoun or the definite article before it.

The strong declension of a-stem. Monosyllabic adjectives with a short root syllable take in the nominative singular feminine and in the nominative and accusative plural neuter the ending -u-; those with a long root syllable have no ending at all in these forms. This difference is obviously due to rhythmical factors: Singular

Masculine Neuter Feminine

N blæc blæc blacu

G blaces blaces blæcre

D blacum blacum blæcre

A blæcne blæc blace

T blace blace -----

Plural

N blace blacu blaca

G blacra blacra blacra

D blacum blacum blacum

A blace blacu blaca

The weak declension of adjectives

The weak declension of adjectives does not differ from that of nouns, except in the genitive plural of all the genders, which often takes the ending -ra-, taken over from the strong declension.

Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

N blaca blace blace blacan

G blacan blacan blacan blæcra

D blacan blacan blacan blacum

A blacan blace blacan blacan

OE adjectives had three degrees of comparison. The comparative degree was formed by means of the suffix -ra and the superlative degree was formed by means of the suffix -ost or -est: blæc - blæcra - blacost.

In some cases while forming the degrees of comparison adjective suffered the influence of the i-umlaut: long - lengra - lengest.

Several adjectives have suppletive forms of comparative and superlative:

3õd - betera - betst ‘good’ lȳtel - læssa - læst ‘little’

micel - mãra - mæst ‘large’

yfel - wiersa - wierest ‘bad’

Almost of all the adjectives adverbs could be formed by adding the suffix -e: blæce. Adverbs as well as adjectives had two types of declension and were declined as adjectives.