Presents

Old English
Part 7

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 Strong Nouns
In this lesson, we’ll begin the discussion of nouns in Old
English. As mentioned in the first lesson, there are
three grammatical genders in OE: Masculine, Feminine
and Neuter; there are two numbers for nouns, singular
and plural.
There are five noun cases in OE, however one of them,
the instrumental case, largely merged with the dative,
especially towards the end of the OE period.
In fact, the instrumental case is only marked by the
masculine and neuter article (ðy, ðon), and the noun
form is identical to the dative. As such, it will not
appear in the paradigms below.

The cases are as follows: Nominative, Accusative,

Genitive, Dative, and Instrumental.

Here is a quick overview:

Nominative: this is used for the subject of a sentence,
as well as a complement which is equal to the subject,
such as expression with wesan “to be.” It is also used
for addressing a speaker.
Accusative: this is used for the direct object of a
sentence.
Genitive: this is the case for possessive expressions. In
Modern English, we still maintain this as the “-’s” and
“-s’” endings. We can also often translate these
expressions using “of.”
Dative: This case is used for indirect objects in a
sentence. Sometimes this can be translated using “to”
or “for.” When used as the instrumental it can be
translated with “with.”
Instrumental: This usually indicates that something is
being used as an instrument, means or manner. It can
sometimes be translated using “with.”

Some verbs take direct objects that are dative or

genitive instead of the normal accusative.

The basic pattern for Masculine nouns is as follows:

Case the boy the boys
Nom se cniht þā cnihtas
Acc þone cniht þā cnihtas
Gen þæs cnihtes þǣra cnihta
Dat þǣm cnihte þǣm cnihtum
For both feminine and neuter nouns, the concept of a
short and long stems needs to be touched upon, as the
endings can be affected by them. For its final syllable,
a long stem has a long vowel OR a short vowel
followed by two consonants. Short stems have a short
vowel followed by one consonant.

The paradigm for feminine nouns is as follows:

Short stem
Case the bride the bride
Nom sēo brȳd þā brȳda
Acc þā brȳde þā brȳda
Gen þǣre brȳde þǣra brȳda
Dat þǣre brȳde þǣm brȳdum

Long stem
Case the gift the gift
Nom sēo ġiefu þā ġiefa
Acc þā ġiefe þā ġiefa
Gen þǣre ġiefe þǣra ġiefa
Dat þǣre ġiefe þǣm ġiefum
The paradigm for neuter nouns is:
Long stem
Case the land the land
Nom se land þā land
Acc þone land þā land
Gen þæs landes þǣra landa
Dat þǣm lande þǣm landum

Short stem
Case the ship the ship
Nom þæt scip þā scipu
Acc þæt scip þā scipu
Gen þæs scipes þǣra scipa
Dat þǣm scipe þǣm scipum

Weak Nouns
Weak nouns are more predictable and easier to
predict. The key to weak noun endings is the ending -
an, which is used for most endings, except the
nominative singular, and the plural dative and genitive.
There are only two common neuter weak nouns.
The basic pattern for masculine weak nouns is as
follows:
Case the man the men
Nom se guma þā guman
Acc þone guman þā guman
Gen þæs guman þǣra gumena
Dat þǣm guman þǣm gumum

The paradigm for feminine weak nouns is as follows:

Case the heart the hearts
Nom sēo heorte þā heortan
Acc þā heortan þā heortan
Gen þǣre heortan þǣra heortena
Dat þǣre heortan þǣm heortum

The paradigm for neuter weak nouns is:

Case the eye the eye
Nom se eage þā eagan
Acc þone eage þā eagan
Gen þæs eagan þǣra eagena
Dat þǣm eagan þǣm eagum
 Overall Patterns
● The plural dative ending for all nouns, strong or
weak, is -um.
● The genitive plural always endings with -a, but for
weak nouns, the full ending is -ena.
● Neuter nouns always have the same form in the
nominative and accusative. Also, since there are
only a few weak neuter nouns, it is safe to assume
a neuter noun is strong.
● The plural accusative matches the plural
nominative for all forms.
● For Strong Nouns, the Dative singular always ends
with -e.
This concludes Part 7. New parts are made available on
patreon.com/stevevagabond weekly, so check back
often.

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