R-stems correspond to the Russian nouns мaть, дочь.
S-stems
A few neuter nouns preserved in OE a system of declension showing in all case of the Plural an R-element. This r comes from the Indo-European stembuilding suffix s (rhotacism).
Sg.
Pl.
The noun cild mostly has its Pl. forms derived without r, according to the system of neuter a-stems, with a long root syllable.
Occasionally, however, it has r in the N., G., and Acc. Plural. S-stems correspond to the Russian nouns н e б o – н e б eca, ч y д o – ч y д eca.
Root-stems
The words of this type never had any stem-forming suffix, so the case endings were added immediately to the root. This type of stem is represented in various Indo-Europeans languages. Masculine root-stems are declined in the following way:
Sg.
Pl.
In 3 case-forms in the D. sg. and in the N. and Acc. pl. there is a result of mutation.
Feminine
Sg.
Pl.
Altogether, there were only 8 endings employed in the noun paradigms: a, e, u, as, es, um and the 0 (zero) inflexion.
MIDDLE ENGLISH NOUN
The OE system of declension of nouns according to their stems is gradually weakened and finally disintegrates.
1. The paradigms of different stems of the strong declension are gradually levelled and confused. The specific inflexions Of OE cases become unified and simplified, weakened and phonetically reduced. Many such inflexions gradually disappear.
2. The inflexion of the weak declension en (from OE an) also gradually disappears.
3. In early ME there are still a variety of paradigms of noun declension. But by the end of the 14th century, the entire system of OE noun declension is already reduced to a very simple paradigm.
Together with the disintegration of the old system of the declension of nouns grammatical gender disappears, because it was closely connected with the system of stem-declension.
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In the Northern and Midland dialects, grammatical gender already disappeared in the 11th and 12th centuries. In the Southern dialects, it disappeared later on.
