N Dene

G Dena (Miercna, Seaxna)

D Denum

A Dene

Fem.

Sg. Pl.

N hyd (hide) hэde, hэda

G hэde hэda

D hэde hэdum

A hэd hэde, hэda

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), dжl (a part), giest (a

guest), drync (a drink); neuter - spere (a spear); feminine - cwйn (a

woman), wiht (a thing).

u-stems

Masc. Fem.

Sg.

N sunu (son)feld (field) duru (door) hand (hand)

G suna felda dura handa

D suna felda dura handa

A sunu feld duru hand

Pl.

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), flуr (a floor).

The other type of nouns according to their declension was the group of

Weak nouns, derived from n-nouns is Common Germanic. Their declension is

simple and stable, having special endings:

Masc. Fem. Neut.

Sg.

N nama (name) cwene (woman) йage (eye)

G naman cwenan йagan

D naman cwenan йagan

A naman cwenan йage

Pl.

N naman cwenan йagan

G namena cwenena йagena

D namum cwenum йagum

A naman cwenan йagan

Examples: masc. - guma (a man), wita (a wizard), steorra (a star), mуna

(the Moon), dйma (a judge); fem. - eorюe (Earth), heorte (a heart), sunne

(Sun); neut. - йare (an ear).

And now the last one which is interesting due to its special Germanic

structure. I am speaking about 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. At school they were a nightmare for

me, now they are an Old English grammar. Besides, in Old English time they

were far more numerous in the language.

Masc. Fem.

Sg.

N mann fуt (foot) tую (tooth) | hnutu (nut) bуc (book) gуs

(goose) mъs (mouse) burg (burg)

G mannes fуtes tуюes | hnute bуce

gуse mъse burge

D menn fйt tйю | hnyte

bйc gйs mэs byrig

A mann fуt tую | hnutu bуk

gуs mъs burg

Pl.

N menn fйt tйю | hnyte bйc

gйs mэs byrig

G manna fуta tуюa | hnuta bуca

gуsa mъsa burga

D mannum fуtum tуюum | hnutum bуcum

gуsum mъsum burgum

A menn fйt tйю | hnyte bйc

gйs mэs byrig

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. - wнfman (a woman), бc (an oak), gбt (a goat), brуc

(breeches), wlуh (seam), dung (a dungeon), furh (a furrow), sulh (a

plough), grut (gruel), lъs (a louse), юrul (a basket), йa (water), niht (a

night), mж'gю (a girl), scrъd (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', mуdor '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?". I am sure you are always thinking of this question, the same as I

thought myself when first studying Old English. The answer is "I don't

know"; 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.

Now I am giving another table, the general declension system of Old

English nouns. Here '-' means a zero ending.

Strong declension (a, ja, wa, у, jу, wу, i -stems).

| |Masculine |Neutral |Feminine |

| |Singular |Plural |Singular |Plural |Singular |Plural |

|Nominativ|- |-as |- |-u (-) |- |-a |

|e | | | | | | |

|Genitive |-es |-a |-es |-a |-e |-a |

|Dative |-e |-um |-e |-um |-e |-um |

|Accustive|- |-as |- |-u (-) |-e |-a |

| |Weak declension |u-stems |

| |Singular |Plural |Singular |Plural |

|Nominative |- |-an |- |-a |

|Genitive |-an |-ena |-a |-a |

|Dative |-an |-um |-a |-um |

|Accustive |-an |-an |- |-a |

The Old English Adjective.

In all historical Indo-European languages adjectives possess

practically the same morphological features as the nouns, the the sequence

of these two parts of speech is an ordinary thing in Indo-European.

However, the Nostratic theory (the one which unites Altaic, Uralic,

Semitic, Dravidian and Indo-European language families into one Nostratic

super-family, once speaking a common Proto-Nostratic language) represented

by Illych-Svitych and many other famous linguists, states that adjectives

in this Proto-Nostratic tongue were morphologically closer to the verbs

than to the nouns.

This theory is quite interesting, because even in Proto-Indo-European,

a language which was spoken much later than Proto-Nostratic, there are some

proofs of the former predicative function of the adjectives. In other

families of the super-family this function is even more clear. In

Altaic languages, and also in Korean and Japanese, which are originally

Altaic, the adjective plays the part of the predicate, and in Korean, for

example, the majority of adjectives are predicative. It means that though

they always denote the quality of the noun, they act the same way as verbs

which denote action. Adjective "red" is actually translated from Japanese

as "to be red", and the sentence Bara-wa utsukusii will mean "the rose is

beautiful", while bara is "a rose", -wa is the nominative marker, and

utsukusii is "to be beautiful". So no verb here, and the adjective is a

predicate. This structure is typical for many Altaic languages, and

probably was normal for Proto-Nostratic as well.

The Proto-Indo-European language gives us some stems which are hard to

denote whether they used to mean an adjective or a verb. Some later

branches reflect such stems as verbs, but other made them adjectives. So it

was the Proto-Indo-European epoch where adjectives as the part of speech

began to transform from a verbal one to a nominal one. And all Indo-

European branches already show the close similarity of the structure of

adjectives and nouns in the language. So does the Old English language,

where adjective is one of the nominal parts of speech.

As well as the noun, the adjective can be declined in case, gender and

number. Moreover, the instrumental case which was discussed before was

preserved in adjectives much stronger than in nouns. Adjectives must follow

sequence with nouns which they define - thet 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. 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:

Strong Declension

a, у-stems

Monosyllabic

Sg.

Masc. Neut. Fem.

N blжc (black) blжc blacu

G blaces blaces blжcre

D blacum blacum blжcre

A blжcne blжc blace

I blace blace -

Pl.

N blace blacu blaca

G blacra blacra blacra

D blacum blacum blacum

A blace blacu blaca

Here "I" means that very instrumental case, answering the question (by

what? with whom? with the help of what?).

Disyllabic

Masc. Neut. Fem.

Sg.

N йadig (happy) йadig йadigu

G йadiges йadiges йadigre

D йadigum йadigum йadigre

A йadigne йadig йadige

I йadige йadige

Pl.

N йadige йadigu йadiga

G йadigra йadigra йadigra

D йadigum йadigum йadigum

A йadige йadigu йadigu

So not many new endings: for accusative singular we have -ne, and for

genitive plural -ra, which cannot be met in the declension of nouns. The

difference between monosyllabic and disyllabic is the accusative plural

feminine ending -a / -u. That's all.

ja, jу-stems (swйte - sweet)

Sg. Pl.

Masc. Neut. Fem. Masc. Neut. Fem.

N swйte swйte swйtu swйte swйtu swйta

G swйtes swйtes swйtre swйtra swйtra swйtra

D swйtum swйtum swйtre swйtum swйtum swйtum

A swйtne swйte swйte swйte swйtu swйta

I swйte swйte -

wa, wу-stems

Sg.

Masc. Neut. Fem.

N nearu (narrow) nearu nearu

G nearwes nearwes nearore

D nearwum nearwum nearore

A nearone nearu nearwe

I nearwe nearwe

Pl.

N nearwe nearu nearwa

G nearora nearora nearora

D nearwum nearwum nearwum

A nearwe nearu nearwa

Actually, some can just omit all those examples - the adjectival

declension is the same as a whole for all stems, as concerns the strong

type. In general, the endings look the following way, with very few

varieties (note that "-" means the null ending):

[pic]

As for weak adjectives, they also exist in the language. The thing is

that one need not learn by heart which adjective is which type - strong or

weak, as you should do with the nouns. 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.

Thus if you say "a black tree" that will be blжc trйow (strong), and "a

black eye" will sound blace йage. Here is the weak declension example

(blaca - black):

Sg. Pl.

Masc. Neut. Fem.

N blaca blace blace blacan

G blacan blacan blacan blжcra

D blacan blacan blacan blacum

A blacan blace blacan blacan

Weak declension has a single plural for all genders, which is pleasant

for those who don't want to remeber too many forms. In general, the weak

declension is much easier.

The last thing to be said about the adjectives is the degrees of

comparison. Again, the traditional Indo-European structure is preserved

here: three degrees (absolutive, comparative, superlative) - though some

languages also had the so-called "equalitative" grade; the special suffices

for forming comparatives and absolutives; suppletive stems for several

certain adjectives.

The suffices we are used to see in Modern English, those -er and -est

in weak, weaker, the weakest, are the direct descendants of the Old English

ones. At that time they sounded as -ra and -est. See the examples:

earm (poor) - earmra - earmost

blжc (black) - blжcra - blacost

Many adjectives changed the root vowel - another example of the Germanic

ablaut:

eald (old) - ieldra - ieldest

strong - strengra - strengest

long - lengra - lengest

geong (young) - gingra - gingest

The most widespread and widely used adjectives always had their

degrees formed from another stem, which is called "suppletive" in

linguistics. Many of them are still seen in today's English:

gуd (good) - betera - betst (or sйlra - sйlest)

yfel (bad) - wiersa - wierest

micel (much) - mбra - mбйst

lэtel (little) - lж'ssa - lж'st

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