Vowel Stems

Strong Declensions

a-stems	ō-stems	i-stems	u-stems
masculine, neuter	feminine	all genders	masculine, feminine

Consonant Stems

Weak declension	Minor declensions
n-stems	root-stems	r-stems	es-stems
all genders	masculine, feminine	masculine, feminine	neuter

2.6.2. Vowel Stems Strong Declension

2.6.2.1. a-stems

A-stems were either masculine or neuter. The two genders differed only in the nominative and accusative plural: masculine nouns had the ending –as; in the neuter nouns the ending depended on the number of syllables and on the shortness or length of the root syllable: monosyllabic nouns with a short root syllable had the ending-u, with a long root syllable they had no ending at all. Dissyllabic nouns with a short root syllable had no ending, with a long root syllable they had the ending –u.

stān (stone), scip (ship), land (land)

Masculine gender			Neuter gender
Case	Sg number	Pl number	Sg number	Pl number	Sg number	Pl number
Nom.	stān	stānas	scip	scipu	land	land
Gen.	stānes	stāna	scipes	scipa	landes	landa
Dat.	stāne	stānum	scipe	scipum	lande	landum
Acc.	stān	stānas	scip	scipu	land	land

Cf. OE Dat.sg lande, OE Dat.pl landum – ModR Dat.sg земле, Dat.pl землям

The a-stem declension played a very important role in the history of English noun inflections. The ending –es of the genitive singular has eventually developed into ModE ’s of the possessive case and the ending –as of the nominative and accusative plural developed into the plural ending -(e)s of ModE. Thus, the two productive endings of modern English nouns go down to the paradigm of the OE a-stems.

Since the ending –u of the neuter nominative and accusative plural regularly disappeared after long syllables the form of the plural became identical with that of the singular.

Sg. Nom. Acc. word wīf (wife) scēap (sheep) dēor (deer)

Pl. Nom. Acc. word wīf scēap dēor

Eventually nouns of the type «word», «wife» have acquired the regular plural ending –s, while sheep, deer, swine have retained their uninflected plurals.

a-stems were usually subdivided into pure a-stems, ja-stems and wa-stems. Some peculiarities of their paradigm are connected with the semivowels [j] and [w] of the stem-building suffix. The a-stem declension corresponds to the second declension of Russian and Latin

2.6.2.2. ō-stems

ō-stems are all feminine. In the nominative singular monosyllabic nouns with a short root syllable had the ending –u, with a long root syllable and disyllabic nouns had no ending at all.

caru (care), lār (folk-lore), feðer (feather)

Feminine gender
Case	Sg number	Pl number	Sg number	Pl number	Sg number	Pl number
Nom.	caru	cara	lār	lāra	feðer	feðera
Gen.	care	cara	lāre	lāra	feðere	feðera
Dat.	care	carum	lāre	lārum	feðere	feðerum
Acc.	care	cara	lāre	lāra	feðere	feðera

The ō-declension corresponded to the first or ā-declension of Russian or Latin. Cf.

R рука, нога, L silva (wood). The declension has left no traces in ModE.

ō-stems are usually subdivided into pure ō-stems, jō-stems and wō-stems.

2.6.2.3. i-stems

i-stems comprised nouns of all three genders. The masculine and neuter i-stems did not differ much in their declensions from the a-stems. The declension of feminine stems differs slightly from the declension of the ō-stems: in the nominative and accusative cases singular they have no endings, like ō-stems, in the plural they may have the ending –a. The root vowel has undergone mutation.

hyll (hill), flǣsc (flesh), cwēne (woman)

	Masculine gender		Neuter gender		Feminine gender
Case	Sg number	Pl number	Sg number	Pl number	Sg number	Pl number
Nom.	hyll	hyllas	flǣsc	flǣsc	cwēn	cwēne, -a
Gen.	hylles	hylla	flǣsces	flǣsca	cwēne	cwēna
Dat.	hylle	hyllum	flǣsce	flǣscum	cwēne	cwēnum
Acc.	hyll	hyllas	flǣsc	flǣsc	cwēn	cwēne, -a

2.6.2.4. u-stems

u-stems included nouns of masculine and feminine genders. Case endings of both genders coincided. The ending of the nominative and accusative singular depended on the shortness or length of the root syllable. In the nominative and accusative singular nouns with a short root syllable had the ending –u, those with a long root syllable had no ending at all.

sunu (son), hand (hand)

	Masculine gender		Feminine gender
Case	Sg number	Pl number	Sg number	Pl number
Nom.	sunu	suna	hand	handa
Gen.	suna	suna	handa	handa
Dat.	suna	sunum	handa	handum
Acc.	sunu	suna	hand	handa

u-stems correspond to Latin nouns of the 4-th declension, such as fructus (fruit)