The Old English Numeral

The Old English language preserves the system of declension only for numerals from 1 to 3. Here is the list of the cardinal numerals:

1 ān	20 twentig
2 twā	21 twentig ond ān
3 þrīe	30 þrītig
4 fēower	40 fēowertig
5 fīf	50 fīftig
6 six, syx, siex	60 siextig
7 seofon, syofn	70 siofontig
8 eahta	80 eahtatig
9 nigon	90 nigontig
10 tien, týn	100 hundtēontig, hund, hundred
11 endlefan	110 hundælleftig
12 twelf	120 hundtwelftig
13 þrīotīene	200 tū hund
14 fēowertīene	1000 þūsend
15 fīftīene	2000 tū þūsendu

1 ān is declined just like a strong adjective, can be only singular, but has masculine, neuter and feminine genders. It is the source of the future indefinite article 'a, an' in Modern English. So 'a house' in fact means "one house", here -n disappeared before a consonant.

2 twā:

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	twegen	tū, twā	twā
Genitive	twēgea, twēgra
Dative	twǣm, twām
Accusative	twegen	tū, twā	twā

No number can be changed for this numeral, and originally this numeral was dual, which seems natural.

3 þrīe:

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	þrīe, þrī, þrý	þrīo, þrēo	þrīo, þrēo
Genitive	þrīora, þrēora
Dative	þrīm
Accusative	þrīe, þrī, þrý	þrīo, þrēo	þrīo, þrēo

The numeral begen, bū, bā(both) is declined the same way astwāand is also dual.

Ordinal numerals  use the suffix -taor-þa, etymologically a common Indo-European one (*-to-).

1 forma, fyresta	14 fēowertēoþa
2 ōþer, æfterra	15 fīftēoþa
3 þridda, þirda	16 sixtēoþa
4 fēorþa	17 siofontēoþa
5 fīfta	18 eahtatēoþa
6 siexta, syxta	19 nigontēoþa
7 siofoþa	20 twentigoþa
8 eahtoþa	30 þrittigoþa
9 nigoþa	40 fēowertigoþa
10 tēoþa	50 fīftigoþa
11 endlefta
12 twelfta	100 hundtēontiogoþa
13 þreotēoþa

The two variants for the word "first" actually mean different attributes: formais translated as "forward", andfyrestais "the farthest", "the first". Again double variants for the second nominal mean respectively "the other" and "the following".

Mainly according to Old English texts ordinal numerals were used with the demonstrative pronoun þābefore them. This is where the definite article in'the first', 'the third' comes from.

The Old English Adverb

They can be either primary (original adverbs) or derive from the adjectives. In fact, adverbs appeared in the language rather late, and eraly Proto-Indo-European did not use them, but later some auxiliary nouns and pronouns losing their declension started to play the role of adverbial modifiers.

In Old English the basic primary adverbs were the following ones:

þa (then);

þonne (then);

þǣr (there);

þider (thither);

nū (now);

hēr (here);

hider (hither);

heonan (hence);

sóna (soon);

oft (often);

eft (again);

swā (so);

hwīlum (sometimes).

Secondary adverbs originated from the instrumental singular of the neuter adjectives of strong declension. They all add the suffix -e:wide(widely),dēope(deeply),fæste(fast),hearde(hard). Another major sugroup of them used the suffixes-līc, -līcefrom more complexed adjectives:bealdlīce(boldly),freondlīce(in a friendly way).

Adverbs, as well as adjectives, had their degrees of comparison:

wīde – wīdor – wīdost (widely – more widely – most widely).