Morphological Classification of Nouns. Declensions

The total number of declensions, including both the major and minor types, exceeded 25. All in all there were only ten distinct endings (plus some phonetic variants of these endings) and a few relevant root-vowel interchanges used in the noun paradigms; yet every morphological class had either its own specific end­ings or a specific succession of markers. The OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the pho­netic structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables.

In the first place, the morphological classification of OE nouns rested upon the most ancient (IE) grouping of nouns according to the stem-suffixes. Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels (vocalic stems, e.g. a-stems, i-stems), of conso­nants (consonantal stems, e. g. n-stems), of sound sequences, e.g. -ja-stems, -nd-stems. Some groups of nouns had no stem-forming suffix or had a "zero-suffix"; they are usually termed "root-stems" and are grouped together with consonantal stems, as their roots ended in consonants, e.g. OE man, bōc (NE man, book).

The loss of stem-suffixes as distinct component parts had led to the forma­tion of different sets of grammatical endings. The merging of the stem-suffix with the original grammatical ending and their phonetic weakening could result in the survival of the former stem-suffix in a new function, as a grammatical end­ing; thus n-stems had many forms ending in -an (from the earlier -eni, -enaz, etc.); u-stems had the inflection -u in some forms.

Sometimes both elements - the stem-suffix and the original ending - were shortened or even dropped (e. g. the ending of the Dat. Sing. -e from the earlier -ai, Nom, and Acc. pl -as from the earlier -os; the zero-ending in the Nom. and Acc. Sing.) in a-stems.

Another reason, which accounts for the division of nouns into numerous declensions is their grouping according to gender. OE nouns distinguished three genders: Masc, Fern, and Neut. Though originally a semantic division, gender in OE was not always associated with the meaning of nouns. Sometimes the deriva­tional suffix referred a noun to a certain gender and placed it into a certain se­mantic group,

• e.g. abstract nouns built with the help of the suffix -ðu were Fem. - OE lenðu, hyhðu (NE length, height),

• nouns with the suffix -ere were Masc. -OE fiscere, bōcere, bacere (NE fisher, 'learned man', baker).

The following nouns denoting human beings show, however, that grammatical gender did not necessarily correspond to sex: alongside Masc. and Fem, nouns denoting males and females there were nouns with "unjustified" gender, cf:

• OE widuwa, Masc. ('widower') - OE widow, Fem. (NE widow);

• OE spinnere, Masc. (NE spinner) - OE spinnestre. Fem, (‘female spinner’;

note NE spinster with a shift of meaning) and nouns like OE wīf, Neut. (NE wife). OE mægden, Neut. (NE maiden, maid), OE wīfman, Masc. (NE woman, originally a compound word whose second component -man was Masc).

In OE gender was primarily a grammatical distinction; Masc., Fem. and Neut. nouns could have different forms, even if they belonged to the same stem (type of declension).

The division into genders was partially connected with the division into stems, though there was no direct correspondence between them: some stems were represented by nouns of one particular gender, e.g. o-stems were always Fem., others embraced nouns of two or three genders. Other reasons accounting for the division into declensions were structural and phonetic: monosyllabic nouns had certain peculiarities as compared to polysyllabic; monosyllables with a long root-syllable (that is, containing a long vowel plus a consonant or a short vowel plus two consonants - also called "long-stemmed" nouns) differed in some forms from nouns with a short syllable (short-stemmed nouns).

The majority of OE nouns belonged to the a-stems, o-stems and n-stems. Special attention should also be paid to the root-stems that displayed specific pe­culiarities in their forms and have left noticeable traces in Modern English.

• a-stems included Masc. and Neut. nouns. About one third of OE nouns were Masc. a-stems, e. g. cniht (NE knight), hām (NE home), mūð (NE mouth); examples of Neut. nouns are:

  • lim (NE limb),

  • hūs (NE house),

  • ðing (NE thing).

Disyllabic nouns, e.g. finger, differed from monosyllables in that they could drop their second vowel in the oblique cases: Nom. Sing.. finger, Gen.fingres, Dat.fingre, NE finger.

The forms in the a-stem declension were distinguished through grammatical endings (including the zero-ending). In some words inflections were accompa­nied by sound interchanges: nouns with the vowel [æ] in the root had an inter­change [æ > a], since in some forms the ending contained a back vowel, e. g.

Nom. Sing.. dæge

Gen. dæges

Nom. pl dagas,

Gen. pl daga.

If a noun ended in a fricative consonant, it became voiced in the intervocalic position, cf. Nom. Sing.. muð, wulf- [θ], [f] - and Nom. Pl. muðas [ð], wulfas - [v]. (Note that their modem descendants have retained the interchange: NE mouth - mouths [θ > ð], wolf-wolves, house - houses).

These interchanges were not peculiar of a-stems alone and are of no significance as grammatical markers; they are easily accountable by phonetic reasons.

Singular a-stem
	M	short-stemmed N	long-stemmed N	ja-stems M	wa-stems N
Nom.	fisc	scip	dēor	ende	cnēo(w)
Gen.	fisces	scipes	dēores	endes	cnēowes
Dal.	fisce	scipc	dēore	ende	cnēowe
Acc.	fisc	scip	dēor	ende	cnēo(w)
Plural
Nom.	fiscas	scipu	dēor	endas	cnēo(w)
Gen.	fisca	scipa	dēora	enda	Cnēowa
Dat.	fiscum	scipum	dēorum	endum	cnēowum
Acc.	fiscas	scipu	dēor	endas	cnēo(w)
	(NE fish)	(NE ship)	(NE deer)	(NE end)	(NE knee)

Neut. a-stems differed from Masc. in the Pl. of the Nom. and Acc. cases. In­stead of -as they took -u for short stems (nouns with a short root-syllable) and did not add any inflection in the long-stemmed variant - see Nom. and Acc. Pl. of scip and dēor in the table. Consequently, long-stemmed Neuters had homonymous Sing.. and Pl. forms: dēor - dēor, likewise sceap - sceap, ðing - ðing, hus -hus.

This peculiarity of Neut. a-stems goes back to some phonetic changes in fi­nal unaccented syllables that have given rise to the important grammatical fea­ture: regular homonymy or neutralization of number distinctions in the noun paradigm. (Traces of this group of a-stems have survived as irregular Pl. forms in Mod E: sheep, deer, swine.)

wa- and ja-stems differed from pure a-stems, as their endings contained traces of the elements -j- and -w-. Nom. and Acc. Sing. could end in -e which had developed from the weakened -j-, though in some nouns with a doubled final consonant it was lost

cf. OE bridd (NE bird);

In some forms -j- is reflected as -i- or -ig- e.g. Nom. here, Dat. herie, herige or herge ('army'). Short-stemmed wa-stems had -u in the Nom. and Acc. Sing. which had developed from the element -w- but was lost after a long syllable;

cf. OE bearu (NE bear) and cnēo; -w- is op­tional but appears regularly before the endings of the oblique cases.

o-stems were all Fem., so there was no further subdivision according to gender. The variants with -j- and -w- decline like pure o-stems except that -w-appears before some endings.

e.g. Nom. sceadu, the other cases - sceadwe (NE shadow).

The difference between short-and long-stemmed o-stems is similar to that between respective a-stems:

• after a short syllable the ending -u is retained,

• after a long syllable it is dropped: wund, tain.

Disyllabic o-stems, like a-stems, lost their second vowel in some case forms: Nom. ceaster, the other cases ceastre ('camp'), (NE -caster, -Chester - a component of place-names).

Like other nouns, o-stems could have the interchange of voiced and voiceless fricative con­sonants as allophones in intervocalic and final position:

glof- glofe [f > v] (NE glove).

Among the forms of o-stems there occurred some variant forms with weakened endings or with endings borrowed from the weak declension - with the element -n- wimdena alongside wunda. Variation increased towards the end of the OE period.

The other vocalic stems, i-stems and u-stems, include nouns of different genders.

Division into genders breaks up i-stems into three declensions, but is ir­relevant for u-stems: Masc. and Fern, u-stems decline alike, e.g. Fern, duru (NE door) had the same forms as Masc. sunu. The length of the root-syllable is im­portant for both stems; it accounts for the endings in the Nom. and Acc. in the same way as in other classes: the endings -e, -u are usually preserved in short-stemmed nouns and lost in long-stemmed.

Comparison of the i-stems with a-stems reveals many similarities.

• Neut. i-stems are declined like Neut. ja-stems;

• the inflection of the Gen. for Masc. and Neut. i-stcms is the same as in a-stems –es;

• alongside Pl. forms in -e we find new variant forms of Masc. nouns in -as, e. g. Nom., Acc. Pl. - winas 'friends' (among Masc. i-stems only names of peoples regularly formed their Pl. in the old way: Dene, Engle, NE Danes, Angles).

• Masc. i-stems adopted some forms from Masc. a-stems, while Neut. i-stems were more likely to follow the pattern of Neut. a-stems;

• as for Fem, i-stems, they resembled o-stems, except that the Acc. and Nom. were not distinguished as with other i-stems.

The most numerous group of the consonantal stems were n-stems or the weak declension, n-stems had only two distinct forms in the Sing.: one form for the Nom. case and the other for the three oblique cases; the element -n- in the inflec­tions of the weak declension was a direct descendant of the old stem suffix -n, which had acquired a new, grammatical function, n-stems included many Masc. nouns, such as boga, cnotta, steorra (NE bow, knot, star), many Fem, nouns, e. g. cirice, eorðe, heorte, hlæfdige (NE church, earth, heart, lady) and only a few Neut. nouns: ēaga (NE eye).

TIPS FOR LEARNING

All Old English nouns were divided into strong and weak ones, the same as verbs in Germanic. While the first had a branched declension, special endings for different numbers and cases, the weak declension was represented by nouns which were already starting to lose their declension system. The majority of noun stems in Old English should be referred to the strong type. Here are the tables for each stems with some comments .

a-stems                    Singular Nom. stán (stone)  scip (ship)  bán (bone)  reced (house)  níeten (ox) Gen.  stánes           scipes       bánes           recedes           níetenes Dat.   stáne            scipe         báne            recede             níetene Acc.  stán              scip           bán              reced               níeten                   Plural Nom.  stánas         scipu         bán              reced                níetenu Gen.    stána          scipa         bána            receda             níetena Dat.    stánum       scipum      bánum       recedum          níetenum Acc.   stánas         scipu         bán              reced               níetenu

This type of stems derived from masculine and neuter noun o-stems in Proto-Indo-European. The reason why normal Indo-European o-stems are called a-stems in all books on Old Englishis is because in Germanic the Indo-European short o became a, and therefore the stem marker was also changed the same way. So the first word here, stán, is masculine, the rest are neuter. The only difference in declension is the plural nominative-accusative, where neuter words lost their endings or have -u, while masculine preserved -as.

A little peculiarity of those words who have the sound [æ] in the stem and say farewell to it in the plural:

          Masculine                         Neuter      Sing.              Pl.             Sing.               Pl. N  dæg (day) dagas     fæt (vessel)  fatu G  dæges       daga       fætes           fata D  dæge         dagum    fæte            fatum A  dæg           dagas     fæt              fatu

Examples of a-stems: earm (an arm), eorl, helm (a helmet), hring (a ring), múþ (a mouth); neuter ones - dor (a gate), hof (a courtyard), geoc (a yoke), word, déor (an animal), bearn (a child), géar (a year).

ja-stems                          Singular                Masculine                             Neuter N  hrycg (back)   here (army) ende (end)  cynn (kind)  ríce (realm) G  hrycges           heriges        endes          cynnes        ríces D  hrycge            herige          ende           cynne          ríce A  hrycg              here            ende           cynn            ríce                         

Plural N  hrycgeas        herigeas       endas         cynn            ríciu G  hrycgea          herigea        enda           cynna          rícea D  hrycgium        herigum       endum       cynnum       rícium A  hrycgeas        herigeas       endas          cynn            ríciu

Again the descendant of Indo-European jo-stem type, known only in masculine and neuter. In fact it is a subbranch of o-stems, complicated by the i before the ending: like Latin lupus and filius.

Examples of this type: masculine - wecg (a wedge), bócere (a scholar), fiscere (a fisher); neuter - net, bed, wíte (a punishment).

wa-stems                Singular                                Plural       Masc.        Neut.                    Masc.         Neut. N  bearu (wood)  bealu (evil)   bearwas      bealu (-o) G  bearwes           bealwes      bearwa        bealwa D  bearwe             bealwe        bearwum     bealwum A  bearu (-o)        bealu (-o)     bearwas      bealu (-o)

Just to mention. This is one more peculiarity of good old a-stems with the touch of w in declension. Interesting that the majority of this kind of stems make abstract nouns. Examples: masculine - snáw (snow), þéaw (a custom); neuter - searu (armour), tréow (a tree), cnéw (a knee)

ó-stems                         Singular   N  swaþu (trace) fór (journey)  tigol (brick) G  swaþe            fóre               tigole D  swaþe            fóre               tigole A  swaþe            fóre               tigole

Plural N  swaþa           fóra               tigola G  swaþa           fóra               tigola D  swaþum        fórum             tigolum A  swaþa           fóra               tigola

Another major group of Old English nouns consists only of feminine nouns. Funny but in Indo-European they are called a-stems. But Germanic turned vowels sometimes upside down, and this long a became long o. However, practically no word of this type ends in -o, which was lost or transformed. The special variants of ó-stems are jo- and wo-stems which have practically the same declension but with the corresponding sounds between the root and the ending.

Examples of ó-stems: caru (care), sceamu (shame), onswaru (worry), lufu (love), lár (an instruction), sorg (sorrow), þrág (a season), ides (a woman).

Examples of jó-stems: sibb (peace), ecg (a blade), secg (a sword), hild (a fight), æx (an axe).

Examples of wó-stems: beadu (a battle), nearu (need), læs (a beam).

i-stems         Masc.                          Neut.                   Singular   N  sige (victory) hyll (hill)  sife (sieve) G  siges              hylles     sifes D  sige               hylle       sife A  sige               hyll         sife                    

Plural N  sigeas           hyllas      sifu G  sigea            hylla        sifa D  sigum          hyllum     sifum A  sigeas          hyllas       sifu

The tribes and nations were usually of this very type, and were used always in plural: Engle (the Angles), Seaxe (the Saxons), Mierce (the Mercians), Norþymbre (the Northumbrians), Dene (the Danish)

  N Dene   G Dena (Miercna, Seaxna)   D Denum   A Dene

                Fem. Singular   Plural N  hyd (hide)   hýde, hýda G  hýde           hýda D  hýde           hýdum A  hýd             hýde, hýda

This kind of stems included all three genders and derived from the same type of Indo-European stems, frequent also in other branches and languages of the family.

Examples: masculine - mere (a sea), mete (food), dæl (a part), giest (a guest), drync (a drink); neuter - spere (a spear); feminine - cwén (a woman), wiht (a thing).

 

     u-stems           Masc.                       Fem. Singular   N  sunu (son)feld (field)  duru (door) hand (hand) G  suna         felda          dura           handa D  suna         felda          dura           handa A  sunu         feld            duru           hand                       

  Plural N  suna         felda          dura           handa G  suna         felda          dura           handa D  sunum      feldum       durum         handum A  suna         felda          dura           handa

They can be either masculine or feminine. Here it is seen clearly how Old English lost its final -s in endings: Gothic had sunus and handus, while Old English has already sunu and hand respectively. Interesting that dropping final consonants is also a general trend of almost all Indo-European languages. Ancient tongues still keep them everywhere - Greek, Latin, Gothic, Old Prussian, Sanskrit, Old Irish; but later, no matter where a language is situated and what processes it undergoes, final consonants (namely -s, -t, often -m, -n) disappear, remaining nowadays only in the two Baltic languages and in New Greek.

Examples:  masculine - wudu (wood), medu (honey), weald (forest), sumor (a summer); fem. - nosu (a nose), flór (a floor).

The other type of nouns according to their declension was the group of Weak nouns, derived from n-nouns is Common Germanic. Weak nouns are so called because they have less variation in form than the so-called "strong nouns." They are not a very numerous group of nouns compared to strong masculine and neuter nouns, but they are frequently encountered and it helps a lot to know the declension. It is also very easy to learn: there are only a few different forms, with the ending -an serving for most of the cases. The "paradigms" (grammatical examples) here are the weak masculine noun cnapa, meaning 'servant' or 'boy', and the weak neuter noun eage, meaning 'eye'.

Weak Masculine Noun cnapa with Demonstratives
cnapa	Singular	Plural
Nominative	se cnapa	þá cnapan
Accusative	þone cnapan	þá cnapan
Genitive	þæs cnapan	þára cnapena
Dative	þæm cnapan	þæm cnapum

Things to notice:

• The ending -an serves for accusative, genitive, and dative singular and for nominative and accusative plural.

• The genitive plural ending is similar to the strong nouns, but -ena instead of simply -a.

• The dative plural ending is the same as we have already seen for the strong masculine and neuter nouns. In fact, get used to associating -um with the dative case, because this shows up a lot.

The declension of weak neuter nouns the same, except for an -e ending in nominative and accusative singular.

Weak Neuter Noun éage
éage	Singular	Plural
Nominative	þæt éage	þá éagan
Accusative	þæt éage	þá éagan
Genitive	þæs éagan	þára éagena
Dative	þæm éagan	þæm éagum

     

Examples: masc. - guma (a man), wita (a wizard), steorra (a star), móna (the Moon), déma (a judge); fem. - eorþe (Earth), heorte (a heart), sunne (Sun); neut. - éare (an ear).

The root-stems which according to Germanic laws of Ablaut, change the root vowel during the declension. In Modern English such words still exist, and we all know them: goose - geese, tooth - teeth, foot - feet, mouse - mice etc.

           Masc.                                            Fem.                           Singular N  mann      fót (foot) tóþ (tooth)  | hnutu (nut)  bóc (book)  gós (goose)  mús (mouse) burg (burg) G  mannes   fótes       tóþes          | hnute           bóce            góse             múse             burge D  menn      fét           téþ             | hnyte          béc              gés               mýs              byrig A  mann      fót          tóþ             | hnutu          bók              gós               mús              burg                          

Plural

N  menn      fét          téþ              | hnyte          béc             gés               mýs              byrig G  manna    fóta        tóþa            | hnuta          bóca            gósa            músa             burga D  mannum fótum      tóþum        | hnutum     bócum         gósum        músum          burgum A  menn       fét          téþ           | hnyte         béc             gés               mýs               byrig

See the rule? The general rule is the so-called i-mutation, which changes the vowel. The conversion table looks as follows and never fails - it is universally right both for verbs and nouns. The table of i-mutation changes remains above.   Examples: fem. - wífman (a woman), ác (an oak), gát (a goat), bróc (breeches), wlóh (seam), dung (a dungeon), furh (a furrow), sulh (a plough), grut (gruel), lús (a louse), þrul (a basket), éa (water), niht (a night),  mæ'gþ (a girl), scrúd (clothes).

There are still some other types of declension, but not too important fro understanding the general image. For example, r-stems denoted the family relatives (dohtor 'a daughter', módor 'a mother' and several others), es-stems usually meant children and cubs (cild 'a child', cealf 'a calf').

The most intriguing question that arises from the picture of the Old English declension is "How to define which words is which kind of stems?".We do not have an anwer for this question; because of the loss of many endings all genders, all stems and therefore all nouns mixed in the language, and one has just to learn how to decline this or that word. This mixture was the decisive step of the following transfer of English to the analytic language - when endings are not used, people forget genders and cases.

In any solid dictionary you will be given a noun with its gender and kind of stem. But in general, the declension is similar for all stems. One of the most stable differences of masculine and feminine is the -es (masc.) or -e in genitive singular of the Strong declension.

The general declension system of Old English nouns.

Here '-' means a zero ending.

Strong declension (a, ja, wa, ó, jó, wó, i -stems).

	Masc.		Neut.		Fem.
	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.
N	-	-as	-	-u (-)	-	-a
G	-es	-a	-es	-a	-e	-a
D	-e	-um	-e	-um	-e	-um
A	-	-as	-	-u (-)	-e	-a

 

	Weak declension		u-stems
	Sg.	Pl.	Sg.	Pl.
N	-	-an	-	-a
G	-an	-ena	-a	-a
D	-an	-um	-a	-um
A	-an	-an	-	-a

§ 4. The Old English Adjective.

In all historical Indo-European languages adjectives possess practically the same morphological features as the nouns, the sequence of these two parts of speech is an ordinary thing in Indo-European. As well as the noun, the adjective can be declined in case, gender and number. Those were dependent grammatical categories or forms of agreement of the adjective with the noun it modified or with the subject of the sentence - if the adjective was a predicative.

Adjectives usually follow sequence with nouns which they define - that is why the same adjective can be masculine, neuter and feminine and therefore be declined in two different types: one for masculine and neuter, the other for feminine nouns. Like nouns, adjectives had three genders and two numbers. The category of case in adjectives differed from that of nouns: in addition to the four cases of nouns they had one more case – Instrumental (answering the question (by what? with whom? with the help of what?). It was used when the adjective served as an attribute to a noun in the Dat. case expressing an instrumental mean­ing - e.g.: lytle werede - 'with (the help of) a small troop'.

Weak and Strong Declension

Most adjectives in OE could be declined in two ways: according to the weak and to the strong declension. The formal differences between the declen­sions were similar to those of the noun declensions. The strong and weak declen­sions arose due to the use of several stem-forming suffixes in PG: vocalic a-, o-, u-, i- and consonantal n-. Accordingly, there developed sets of endings of the strong declension mainly coinciding with the endings of a-stems of nouns for ad­jectives in the Masc. and Neut. and of o-stems - in the Fem., with some differ­ences between long- and short-stemmed adjectives, variants with j- and w-, monosyllabic and polysyllabic adjectives and some remnants of other stems.

Some endings in the strong declension of adjectives have no parallels in the noun paradigms; they are similar to the endings of pronouns: -um for Dat. Sing. -ne for Acc. Masc., [r] in some Fem. and Pl. endings. Therefore the strong declension of

adjectives is sometimes called the "pronominal" declension. As for the weak declension, it uses the same markers as (n-stems of nouns except that in the Gen. Pl. the pronominal ending -ra is often used instead of the weak -ena.

The difference between the strong and the weak declension of adjectives was not only formal but also semantic. Unlike the noun, the adjective did not be­long to a certain type of declension. Most adjectives could be declined in both ways. The choice of the declension was determined by a number of factors: the syntactical function of the adjective, the degree of comparison and the presence of noun determiners. The adjective had a strong form when used predicatively and when used attributively without any determiners, e.g.: ða menn sindon gode - 'the men are good'

If you have a weak noun as a subject, its attributive adjective will be weak as well. So - a strong adjective for a strong noun, a weak adjective for a weak noun, the rule is as simple as that.

The weak form was also employed when the adjective was preceded by a de­monstrative pronoun or the Gen. case of personal pronouns. Some adjectives, however, did not conform with the general rules.

Singular (NE blind)
Strong (pure a- and o-stems)				Weak
	M	N	F	M	N	F
Nom.	blind	blind	blinde	blinda	blinde	blinde
Gen.	blindes	blindes	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
Dat.	blindum	blindum	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
Acc.	blindne	blindne	blinde	blindan	biinde	blindan
Instr.	blinde	blind	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
Plural
				All genders
Nom.	blinde	blind	blinda, -e	blindan
Gen.	blindra	blindra	blindra	blindra, -ena
Dat.	blindum	blindum	blindum	blindum
Acc.	blinde	blind	blinda, -e	blindan
Instr.	blindum	blindum	blindum	blindum

The declension is more or less simple, it looks much like the nominal system of declension, though there are several important differences. Interesting to know that one-syllable adjectives ("monosyllabic") have different declension than two-syllable ones ("disyllabic"). See for yourselves: