OLD ENGLISH NOMINALS

NOUNS
CATEGORIES: gender, number, case.
In Old Germanic languages there are the following types of
noun stems:
Vocalic stems: -a-, -o-, -i-, -u- stems. Declension of these
substantives has been called strong declension.
n-stems. Declension of these is called weak declension.
Stems in other consonants: -s- and -r-stems.
Root-stems. This is a peculiar type: these substantives never had
a stem-building suffix, so that their stem had always coincided
with their root.
Old English can be called a synthetic or inflected language because it
showed the relations between words with the help of grammatical
forms.
Gender is a lexico-grammatical category, that is, every noun with all
its forms belongs to one gender - masculine, feminine and neuter. The
difference between them was grammatical rather than semantic.
Number and case are purely grammatical categories.
From the point of view of Number the noun , the adjective, the pronoun
fell into two groups. They distinguished two numbers: singular and
plural. But the personal pronouns of the 1 and 2 person had also
special forms to denote two objects: dual number. The Dual number
was confined to two pronouns and is regarded as an isolated archaic
trace in the grammar system.
The Vocalic or Strong Declension

a-stem, masculine and neuter nouns

Example declensions of stān - "stone" (masc.); sċip - "ship"
(neut. short stem); þing - "thing" (neut. long stem); ġiefu -
"gift" (fem. short stem); and sorg - "sorrow" (fem. long stem)
SINGULAR PLURAL
MASC NEUTER MASC NEUTER

Nom stān scip stān-as scip-u heofod-u/hefdu

Gen stān-es scip-es stān-a scip-a hefd-a

Dat stān-e scip-e stān-um scip-um hefd-um

Acc stān scip stan-as scip-u heofod-u
U-nouns. Example declensions of hand - "hand"
(fem. long-stem) and ƿudu - "wood", "forest" (masc.
short-stem)

FEMININE MASCULINE
Sg. Pl. Sg. Pl.
NOM hand hand-a Þudu Þud-a
GEN hand-a hand-a Þud-a Þud-a

DAT hand-a hand- Þud-u Þud-um

um
ACC hand hand-a Þudu Þud-a
I-mutation nouns: example declensions of mann -
"human", "person" (masculine); bōc - "book" (long-stem
feminine); hnutu - "nut" (short-stem feminine)

SINGL PL SING PL
Nominative man men wīf wīf

Genitive mannes manna wīfes wīfa

Dative men mannum wīfe wīfum

Accusative man men wīf wīf

Instrumental - -
WEAK DECLENSION
Example declension of nama - "name", ēage -
"eye", and tunge - "tongue“.
MASCULINE NEUTER FEMININE
SG PL SG PL SG PL
NOM nam-a nam-an ēag-e ēag-an tung-e tung-an
GEN nam-an nam-ena ēag-an ēag-ena tung-an tung-ena

DAT nam-an nam-um ēag-an ēag-um tung-an tung-um

ACC nam-an nam-an ēag-e ēag-an tung-an tung-an

ADJECTIVES
had different inflections for different genders, and had to agree
with the noun in gender.
In OE like in Proto-Germanic there two distinct sets of
inflections for the adjectives, called the strong and the weak
declensions of the adjective. The distinction between the
strong and the weak forms of the adjective is traced in OE
gōd mann “a good person” – strong from, and the weak form
sē gōda mann. Weak declension of adjectives corresponds to
the weak declension of nouns (in –n-), though it differs from
weak declension of nouns in genitive plural, where we can
find the ending –ra. The latter is a borrowing from the strong
declension due to the analogy process.
Adjectives have the categories of case, gender and number, degrees of
comparison. They are declined in accordance with relevant stems.
Unlike nouns, adjectives may have five cases, including Instrumental.
Degrees of comparison: PG suffixes of the relative degree *iza and *-
oza had undergone the rhotacism and the reduction of the first vowel;
in OE they coalesced in -ra. PG superlative suffixes *-ist, *-ost- > OE
–est, -ost. In those adjectives, where reletive degree suffix ascend to
*iza and *-ist, the root vowel was subject to i-mutation. In the
adjectives, whose suffixes ascend to *oza and *-ost original vowels
correspond to comparison forms.
Heard “жорсткий, загартований” – heardra – heardost
Hwæt “хоробрий” - hwætra – hwatost
Some adjectives have the suppletive forms of
comparison, e.g:
 Gōd – betera, bettra – betst
Yfel – wiersa, wyrsa – wierrest, wyrst
Micel – māra - mæst
 
There two forms of the adjective:
(1) Definite (or weak),
(2) Indefinite (or strong).
The definite form is denoted by a final -e, as “the gode man”. The
plural is also denoted by a final -e, as “gode frendes”. This “e” is
often dropped towards the end of the 14th century. In Chaucer it
disappears in words of more than 1 syllable, as “mortal batailles”.
The Norman-French plural -es (-s) is not uncommon, mostly when
the adjective follows the noun it qualifies, as “wateres
principales”.
 A few instances of the genitive singular in -es occurs in alles,
nones, when united to kyn.
 Degrees of Comparison
The comparative is formed by adding -ere, -er to the
positive. In earlier texts we find -or, -ur for -er.
The superlative ends in -este, -est; sometimes in -ost.
Adjectives and adverbs in -lich form their comparative
and superlative in -loker, -liker, -laker; -lokest,,
-likest, -lukest.
Eldre, lengre, strengre have vowel-change as well as
the inflection of comparison: older, longer, stronger
are also found in Chaucer.
CF. old - elder - eldest
long - lenger - lengest
strong - strenger - strengest
OE: glæd - glædra - gladost
OE -ra >ME -re >-r > -er
heard - heardra - heardost
OE -ost > ME -est
PRONOMINALS. OE pronouns (grammatical categories)

The peculiarities of the system of OE pronouns:

1.No possessive pronouns. Gen of personal pronouns was used
instead.
2. Some demonstrative pronouns in the course of time have
weakened their lexical meaning in the function of the definite
article.
3. Some groups of pronouns preserved the instrumental case.
Classes: personal, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite.
Grammatical categories: three persons (1, 2, 3); three numbers
in the 1st and the 2nd persons (sg, dual, pl); two numbers in the
third person, and three genders only in the third person.
DEMONSTRATIVES