Morphological Classification of Nouns in Old English

Division according to stem

Vocalic stems	Consonantal stems
Strong declension^1	n -stems (weak de­clension)	Root-stems	Other minor stems: r -,s-, nd-
a -stems	ō -stems	i- stems	u -stems
ja- stems	jō -stems
wа -stems	wō -stems
Division according to gender
MN	F	MNF	MF	MNF	MF	MNF
Division according to length of the root-syllable
short long	short long	short long	short long
^1 Vocalic stems are also called the "strong" declension; one of the conso­nantal stems — the n-stems — are termed the "weak" declension.

Declensions of Nouns

Strong Declensions (Vocalic Stems)

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

Strong Declensions (Vocalic Stems)

(continued)

 

Singular
ō-stems short-stemmed long-stemmed F	i- stems short-stemmed M	u-stems short-stemmed long-stemmed M
Nom.	talu	wund	mete	sunu	feld
Gen.	tale	wunde	metes	suna	felda
Dat.	tale	wunde	mete	suna	felda
Acc.	tale	wunde	mete	sunu	felda

 

Plural
Nom.	tala, -e	wunda, -e	mete, -as	suna	felda
Gen.	tala (-ena)	wunda (-ena)	meta	suna	felda
Dat.	talum	wundum	metum	sunum	feldum
Acc.	tala, -e	wunda, -e	mete, -as	suna	felda
	(NE tale) (NE wound)	('food', NE meat)	(NE son)	( NE field)

Consonantal Stems

Singular
	n-stems (weak declension) M N F	root-stems M F
Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc.	nama ēаге tunзe naman ēaran tunзan naman ēaran tunзan naman ēaran tunзan	fōt fōtes fēt fōt	mūs mýs, mūse mýs mūs

 

Plural
	n-stems (weak declension) M N F	root-stems M F
Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc.	naman ēaran tunзan namena ēагеnа tunзena namum ēarum tunзum naman ēaran tunзan (NE name) (NE ear) (NE tongue)	fēt fōta fōtum fēt (NE foot)	mýs mūsa mūsum mýs (NE mouse)

 

 

The pronoun.

Personal pronouns. Their categories.

Declension of Personal Pronouns

First person
Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc	ic mīn mē mec, mē	wit uncer unc uncit	wē ūre, ūser ūs ūsic, ūs
Second person
Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc.	þū þīn þē þēc, þē	3it incer inc incit, inc	Зē ēower ēow ēowic, ēow
Third person
Singular	Plural
	M F N	All genders
Nom. Gen. Dot. Ace.	hē hēo, hīo hit his hire, hiere his him hire, hiere him hine hīe, hī, hý hit	hīe, hī, hý, hēo hira, heora, hiera, hyra him, heom hīe, hī, hý, hēo

 

Demonstrative pronouns. There were two types of demostrative pronouns in OE: the prototype of that (sē, sēo, þæt) and the prototype of this (þes Masc., þēos Fem., þis Neut. and þās pl.)

 

Declension of sē, sēo, þæt

Case	Singular	Plural
Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. Instr.	M sē, se þæs þǽm, pām þone þý,þon	N þæt þæs þǽm, þām þææt þý, þon	F sēo þǽre þǽrе þā þǽre	All genders þā þāra, þǽrа þām, þǽm þa þǽm, þām

 

Other classes of pronouns. Interrogative pronouns – hwā, Masc. and Fem., hwæt, Neut. (NE who and what). Indefinite pronouns: ān, ǽniз, nān, nānþinз, nāwiht/ nōht (NE one, any, none, nothing, ‘nothing’/ not).

 

The adjectives.

Grammatical categories. Weak and strong declension.

The strong and weak declensions arose due to the use of several stem-forming suffixes. In the strong declension there appeared the set of endings mainly coincedind with the endings of a-stens and ō-stems of nouns. Some emdimgs in the strong declension of adjectives have no parallel in the noun paradigms; they are similar to the endings of pronouns (Dat. Sing., Acc. sing.Masc., some Fem. And pl. Endings). Therefore the strong declension is sometimes called the “pronominal” declension. As for the weak declension, it uses the samemarkers as n-stems of nouns exept that in the Gen pl. The pronominal ending –ra is often used instead of the weak –ena.

 

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

 

The difference between the strong and the weak declensions is also semantic. Unlike a noun, an adjective did nopt belong to a certain declension. Most adjectives could decline 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. The weak form was imployed when the adjective was preceded by a demontstrative pronoun or the Gen. Case of personal pronouns.

Some adjectives were always declined strong: eall, maniз,ōþer (NE all, many, other), while others were always weak: adjectives in the superlative and comparative degrees, ordinal numerals, the adjective ilca (NE same).

The strong forms were associated with the meaning of indefiniteness, the weak forms – with the meaning of definiteness.

Degrees of comparison.

Positive, comparative, superlative degrees. Means of forming the degrees of comparison: suffixation, suffixation plus vowel interchange, suppletion.