How Do You Know That a Noun Is Second Declension

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Morphological Classification of Nouns. Declensions

� 158. The virtually remarkable characteristic of OE nouns was their elaborate organization of declensions, which was a sort of morphological nomenclature. The total number of declensions, including both the major and small-scale types, exceeded 20-v. All in all there were only ten distinct endings (plus some phonetic variants of these endings) and a few relevant root-vowel interchanges used in the substantive paradigms; withal every morphological class had either its ain specific endings or a specific succession of markers. Historically, the OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stalk-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables.

� 159.In the first identify, the morphological classification of OE nouns rested upon the most ancient (IE) grouping of nouns co-ordinate to the stem-suffixes (see � 66, 67). Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels (vocalic stems, east. g. a-stems, i-stems), of consonants (consonantal stems, due east. one thousand. northward-stems), of audio sequences, eastward. one thousand. -ja-stems, -nd-stems. Some groups of nouns had no stem-forming suffix or had a "zero-suffix"; they are usually termed "root-stems" and are grouped together with conso�nantal stems, as their roots ended in consonants, due east. m. OE homo, bōc (NE human, book).

The loss of stem-suffixes as distinct component parts had led to the formation of dissimilar sets of grammatical endings (see � 67). The merg�ing of the stem-suffix with the original grammatical ending and their phonetic weakening could consequence in the survival of the former stem-suf�fix in a new function, as a grammatical catastrophe; thus n-stems had many forms ending in -an (from the earlier -*eni, -*enaz, etc.); u-stems had the inflection -u in some forms.

Sometimes both elements � the stem-suffix and the original ending � were shortened or even dropped (east. 1000. the ending of the Dat. sg -due east from the before Nom. and Acc. pl -as from the earlier -ōs; the nix-ending in the Nom. and Acc. sg) in a-stems.

� 160. Some other reason which accounts for the division of nouns into numerous declensions is their grouping according to gender. OE nouns distinguished three genders: Masc., Fem. and Neut. Though ori�ginally a semantic division, gender in OE was non ever associated with the meaning of nouns. Sometimes a derivational suffix referred a substantive to a certain gender and placed it into a sure semantic group, e. g. abstract nouns congenital with the assistance of the suffix -pu. were Fem. � OE lenðpu, hӯhþu (NE length, superlative), nomina agentis with the suffix -ere were Masc. � OE fiscere, bōcere (NE fisher, �learned human being�). The follow�ing nouns denoting human being beings prove, withal, that grammatical gender did not necessarily correspond to sex: alongside Masc. and Fem. nouns denoting males and females there were nouns with "unjustified" gender, cf.:

OE widuwa, Masc. (�widower�) � OE widowe. Fem. (NE widow);

OE spinnere, Masc. (NE spinner)� OE spinnestre, Fem. (�female spinner�; note NE spinster with a shift of meaning) and nouns similar OE wif, Neut. (NE married woman), OE mæʒden Neut. (NE maiden, maid), OE wlfman, Masc. (NE adult female, originally a compound word whose second component -man was Masc).

In OE gender was primarily a grammatical distinction; Masc., Fem. and Neut. nouns could have different forms, even if they belonged to the aforementioned stem (blazon of coast).

The division into genders was in a sure way continued with the division into stems, though there was no directly correspondence between them: some stems were represented by nouns of 1 particular gender, e. g. ō-stems were always Fem., others embraced nouns of ii or three genders.

� 161.Other reasons accounting for the sectionalization into declensions were structural and phonetic: monosyllabic nouns had certain peculiar�ities every bit compared to polysyllabic; monosyllables with a long root-syl�lable (that is, containing a long vowel plus a consonant or a brusque vowel plus 2 consonants � also called "long-stemmed" nouns) differed in some forms from nouns with a brusk syllable (short-stemmed nouns).

� 162.Tabular array 1 shows the morphological nomenclature of OE nouns and the hierarchial application of the primary features which account for this division (division of nouns into mono- and polysyllables is not in�cluded; run into the descriptions of the declensions below).

The paradigms of nouns belonging to the main types of OE declen�sions are given in Tables 2, 3 and 4.

The majority of OE nouns belonged to the a-stems, ō-stems and n-stems. Special attention should also exist paid to the root-stems which displayed specific peculiarities in their forms and have left noticeable traces in Modernistic Due east.

Table i

Morphological Classification of Nouns In Old English language

Division, according to stem

Vocalic stems	Consonantal stems
Strong declension[xiv]
a-stems	ō-stems	i-stems	u-stems	n-stems (weak declension)	Root-stems	Other small-scale stems: r-, s-, nd-
and their variants
ja-stems wa-stems	jō-stems wo-stems
Sectionalization according to gender
MN	F	MNF	MF	MNF	MF	MNF
Partitioning according to length of the root-syllable
brusk long	short long	brusk long	short long

� 163. a-stems included Masc, and Neut. nouns. About one third of OE nouns were Masc. a-stems, e. thousand. cniht (NE knight), hāthousand (NE habitation), mūp)(NE mouth); examples of Neut. nouns are: lim (NE limb), hūs (NE house), pinʒ (NE thing). (Disyllabic nouns, e. chiliad. finʒer, differed from monosyllabics in that they could drop their 2nd vowel in the oblique cases: Nom. sg finʒer, Gen. finʒres, Dat. fynʒre, NE finger.)

As seen from Table ii the forms in the a-stem declension were dis�tinguished through grammatical endings (including the cipher-catastrophe). In some words inflections were accompanied by sound interchanges: nouns with the vowel [æ] in the root had an interchange [æ ~ a], since in some forms the ending contained a dorsum vowel, due east. g. Nom. sg dæʒ, Gen. dæʒes � Nom. and Gen. pl daʒas, daʒa (for the origin of the in�terchange encounter � 117). If a noun ended in a fricative consonant, it became voiced in an intervocal position, cf. Nom. sg mūp, wulf � [θ], [f] � and Nom. pl mūpas, wulfas � [ð], [five] (encounter � 139). (Note that their modernistic descendants accept retained the interchange: NE mouth � mouths [θ ~ ð], wolf � wolves, also house � houses and others.) These inter�changes were not peculiar of a-stems solitary and are of no significance as grammatical markers; they are easily answerable by phonetic reasons.

Table two

DECLENSION OF NOUNS[fifteen]

Strong Declensions (Vocalic Stems)

a-stems
Singular
K	brusk-stemmed N	long-stemmed N	ja-stems M	aw-stems N
Nom. fisc Gen. fisces Dat. fisce Acc. fisc	scip scipes scipe scip	dēor dēores dēore dēor	ende endes ende ende	cnēo(west) cnēowes cnēowe cnēo(w)
Plural
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)

Table three

Strong Declensions (Vocalic Stems)

(continued)

Singular
ō-stems short-stemmed long-stemmed F	i-stems brusk-stemmed[16] M	u-stems short-stemmed long-stemmed Thousand
Nom. talu wund Gen. tale wunde Dat. tale wunde Acc. tale wunde	mete metes mete mete	sunu feld suna felda suna felda 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, -due east	wunda, -e	mete, -every bit	suna	felda
	(NE tale)	(NE wound)	(�food�, NE meat)	(NE son)	(NE field)

Table four

Consonantal Stems

Singular
n-stems (weak declension)	root-stems
	K	N	F	Grand
Nom.	nama	ēare	tunʒe	fōt	mūs
Gen.	naman	ēaran	tunʒan	fōtes	mӯs, mūse
Dat.	naman	ēaran	tunʒan	fēt	mӯs
Acc.	naman	ēaran	tunʒan	fōt	mūs
			Plural
Nom.	naman	ēaran	tunʒan	fēt	mӯs
Gen.	namena	ēarena	tunʒena	fōta	mūsa
Dat.	namum	ēarum	tunʒum	fōtum	mūsum
Acc.	naman	ēaran	tunʒan	fēt	mӯs
	(NE name)	(NE ear)	(NE natural language)	(NE pes)	(NE mouse)

Annotation should be taken of the inflections -es of the Gen. sg, -equally of the Nom. and Acc. Masc. Towards the finish of the OE period they began to exist added to an increasing number of nouns, which originally belonged to other stems. These inflections are the prototypes and sources of the Mod E pl and Poss. case markers -(east)s and -southward.

� 164. Neut. a-stems differed from Masc, in the pl of the Nom. and Acc. cases. Instead of -every bit they took -u for short stems (that is nouns with a short root-syllable) and did not add any inflection in the long-stemmed variant � see Nom. and Acc. pl of scip and dēor in the tabular array. Consistent�ly, long-stemmed Neuters had homonymous sg and pl forms: dēor � dēor, besides scēap � scēap, pinʒ � pinʒ, hūs � hūs. This peculiarity of Neut. a-stems goes back to some phonetic changes (see � 132) in final unaccented syllables which have given ascension to an important grammati�cal characteristic: an instance of regular homonymy or neutralisation of num�ber distinctions in the noun image. (Traces of this group of a-stems have survived as irregular pl forms in Mod Due east: sheep, deer, mine.)

� 165. wa -and ja -stemsdiffered from pure a-stems in some forms, as their endings independent traces of the elements -j- and -w-. Nom. and Acc. sg could end in -eastward which had developed from the weakened -j- (see ende in Table 2), though in some nouns with a doubled final consonant it was lost � cf. OE bridd (NE bird); in some forms -j- is reflected every bit -i- or -iʒ-, eastward. g. Nom. sg here, Dat. herie, herʒeastward, or heriʒe (�army�). Brusk-stemmed wa-stems had -u in the Nom. and Acc. sg which had developed from the element -due west- but was lost later on a long syllable (in the same way as the plural catastrophe of neuter a-stems described to a higher place); cf. OE bearu (NE deport)and cnēo; -w- is optional but appears regularly earlier the endings of the oblique cases (see the coast of cnēo in Table 2).

� 166. ō-stems were all Fem., and so there was no further subdivision according to gender. The variants with -j- and -westward- refuse similar pure ō-stems except that -west- appears before some endings, eastward. m. Nom. sg sceadu, the other cases � sceadwe (NE shadow). The difference between short and long-stemmed ō-stems is similar to that between corresponding a-stems: after a short syllable the ending -u is retained, after a long syllable it is dropped, cf. wund, talu in Table 3. Disyllabic ō-stems, like a-stems, lost their 2nd vowel in some case forms: Nom. sg ceaster, the other cases ceastre (�army camp�, NE -caster, -chester � a component of place-names), Like other nouns, ō-stems could have an interchange of voiced and voiceless fricative consonants as allophones in intervocal and final position: ʒlōf � ʒlōfe [f ~ 5] (NE glove).Among the forms of ō-stems in that location occurred some variant forms with weakened endings or with end�ings borrowed from the weak declension � with the element -n- � wundena aslope wunda. Variation increased towards the terminate of the OE menstruation.

� 167. The other vocalic stems, i -stems and u -stems, include nouns of different genders. Division into genders breaks up i-stems into three declensions, but is irrelevant for u-stems: Masc. and Fem. u-stems de�cline alike, due east. k. Fem. duru (NE door)had the aforementioned forms as Masc. sunu shown in the table. The length of the root-syllable is important for both stems; it accounts for the endings in the Nom. and Acc. sg in the same way as in other classes: the endings -e, -u are usually preserved in brusk-stemmed nouns and lost in long-stemmed.

Comparison of the i-stems with a-stems reveals many similarities. Neut. i-stems are declined like Neut. ja-stems; the inflection of the Gen. sg for Masc. and Neut. i-stems is the same as in a-stems � es; along�side pl forms in -e we find new variant forms of Masc. nouns in -as, due east. g. Nom., Acc. pl � winas �friends� (among Masc. i-stems merely names of peo�ples regularly formed their pl in the old manner: Dene, Enʒle, NE Danes, Angles). Information technology appears that Masc. i-stems adopted some forms from Masc. a-stems, while Neut. i-stems were more probable to follow the pattern of Neut. a-stems; every bit for Fem. i-stems, they resembled ō-stems, except that the Acc. and Nom. sg were non distinguished equally with other i-stems.

� 168. The nigh numerous group of the consonantal stems were north-stems or the weak declension. n-stems had but two distinct forms in the sg: one course for the Nom. example and the other for the three ob�lique cases; the element -due north- in the inflections of the weak declension was a directly descendant of the erstwhile stem-suffix -n, which had acquired afresh, grammatical function. u-stems included many Masc. nouns, such as boʒa, cnotta, steorra (NE bow, knot, star), many Fem. nouns, eastward. g. cirice, eorpe, heorte, hlæfdiʒe (NE church, earth, heart, lady)and but a few Neut. nouns: eaʒa(NE eye).

� 169.The other consonantal declensions are chosen small conso�nantal stems as they included minor groups of nouns. The most impor�tant type are the root-stems, which had never had any stem-forming suffix. In Early on OE the root-vowel in some forms was subjected to pho�netic changes: if the grammatical ending independent the sound [i], the vowel was narrowed and/or fronted by palatal mutation (see � 125 ff). After the ending was dropped the mutated vowel turned out to be the just marking of the form. Cf. the reconstructed forms of Dat. sg and Nom., Acc. pl of fōt (NE foot): *fēti, *fētiz (from earlier *fōti, *fōtiz)and their descendants in OE � fēt, fēt. The interchange of root-vowels had turned into a regular ways of form-building used similarly with inflections (run into the forms of fōt and mūs inTable four). This peculiarity of the root-stems is of considerable consequence for afterwards history and has left traces in Modernistic E. (Irregular pl forms � men, women, teeth and the like come from the OE root-stem coast.)

� 170. Among the other consonantal stems we should mention a pocket-sized group of nouns denoting family relationship with the stem-suffix -r, e.1000. brōpor, fæder, mōdor (NE blood brother, father, mother). They ordinarily had a mutated vowel in the Dat. sg: brēper, lost the second vowel in some forms similar other disyllabic nouns: brōprum, mōāra and employed some endings adopted from other stems, due east.g. fæderas � Nom., Acc. pl (cf. -as in a-stems).

� 171. Some other small grouping of nouns is known equally southward-stems, though in OE, too as in other West and North Chiliad languages this [due south] had long changed into [r]. Only a Few Neut. nouns remained in that group in OE, e. yard. lamb, cealf, cild (NE lamb, calf, kid). In the sg they were declined like Neut. a-stems, merely in the pl had a specific inflection, non to be found exterior that group; their stem-suffix -s, transformed into -r, had survived as role of the inflection: Nom. pl lambru. Gen. 50ambra, Dat. lambrum, Acc. lambru. ([r] in the pl form of children in Mod E is a trace of the stem-suffix -r).

� 172. It may be concluded that for all its complicated arrangement the arrangement of noun declensions lacked consistency and precision. There were many polyfunctional and homonymous markers in the paradigms. The distinction betwixt morphological classes was not strict. Some forms were akin in all the declensions (namely, -a and -um for the Gen. and Dat. pl), many forms acquired new analogical variants under the influence of the more numerous classes or variants with phonetically weakened endings, which eliminated the differences between the declensions and between the forms inside the paradigm. Towards the finish of the OE period formal variation grew and the system tended to be re-arranged according to gender on the footing of the virtually influential types: a-stems, n-stems and ō-stems.

The distinction of forms in the paradigms was inconsistent. None of the declen�sions made a distinction betwixt eight forms � for two numbers and four cases; some declensions distinguished between v forms, others � between 3 or even 2. Nom. and Acc. pl had the same form in all the declensions. In the sg there were two chief means of case differentiation: 1 common form for the Nom. and the Acc. and ii distinct forms for the Dat. and Gen.; or else � one common form for the 3 oblique cases, distinct from the Nom. The divergence betwixt the 2 numbers � sg and pl � was shown with greater precision.

THE PRONOUN

� 173. OE pronouns brutal roughly under the same main classes as modern pronouns; personal, demonstrative, interrogative and indefi�nite. As for the other groups � relative, possessive and reflexive � they were as yet not fully developed and were non e'er distinctly separat�ed from the four main classes. The grammatical categories of the pro�nouns were either like to those of nouns (in "noun-pronouns") or corresponded to those of adjectives (in "adjective pronouns"). Some fea�tures of pronouns were peculiar to them alone.

Personal Pronouns

� 174. As shown in Tabular array 5 below, OE personal pronouns had three persons, three numbers in the 1st and second p. (ii numbers � in the 3rd) and 3 genders in the 3rd p. The pronouns of the 1st and 2nd p. had suppletive forms similar their parallels in other IE languages (see � 62). The pronouns of the 3rd p., having originated from demonstrative pro�nouns, had many affinities with the latter (cf. the forms in Table 6).

� 175. In OE, while nouns consistently distinguished between four cases, personal pronouns began to lose some of their case distinctions: the forms of the Dat. case of the pronouns of the 1st and 2nd p. were fre�quently used instead of the Acc; in fact the fusion of these 2 cases in the pl was completed in the WS dialect already in Early OE: Acc. ēowic and ūsic were replaced by Dat. ēow, ūs; in the sg usage was variable, but variant forms revealed the same tendency to generalise the form of the Dat. for both cases. This is seen in the following quotation: Sē pe thouē ʒehǣlde, sē cwæð tō mē �He who healed me, he said to me� � the get-go mē, though Dat. in course, serves as an Acc. (direct object); the sec�ond mē is a real Dat.

� 176. Information technology is important to note that the Gen. instance of personal pronouns had two main applications: like other oblique cases of substantive-pronouns it could be an object, merely far more frequently it was used as an attribute or a noun determiner, like a possessive pronoun, east. g. sunu min, his fæder (NE my son, his father). Though forms of the Gen. case were em�ployed every bit possessive pronouns, they cannot exist regarded as possessive pronouns proper (that is, as a separate grade of pronouns). The grammati�cal characteristics of these forms were not homogeneous. The forms of the 1st and 2nd p. � min, ūre and others � were declined like adjectives to evidence understanding with the nouns they modified, while the forms of the third p. behaved similar nouns: they remained uninflected and did not agree with the nouns they modified.

Cf.:

Nim pivot ʒesceot... and pinne boʒan �have thy (thine) implements for shoot�ing and thy bow� (pin and pinne bear witness agreement with the nouns �Acc. sg, Neut. and Masc.)

He ... sēalde striking hys mēder �he gave it to his mother�.

hēo befēold his handa �she covered his hands� (his does not change its form though mider is Dat. sg, handa � Acc. pl).

Table v

Declension of Personal Pronouns

First person
Example	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nom.	ic	wit	wē
Gen.	min	uncer	ūre, ūser
Dat.	me	unc	ūs
Acc.	mec, mē	uncit	ūsic, ūs
Second person
Nom.	pū	ʒit	ʒē
Gen.	pin	incer	ēower
Dat.	pē	inc	ēow
Acc.	pēc, pē	incit, inc	ēowic, ēow
Third person
Atypical	Plural
	M	F	Northward	All genders
Nom.	hē	hēo, hio	hit	hie, hi, hӯ, hēo
Gen.	his	hire, hiere	his	hira, heora, hiera, hyra
Dat.	him	hire, hiere	him	him, heom
Acc.	hine	hie, hi, hӯ	hitting	hie, hi, hӯ, hēo

� 177. The oblique cases of personal pronouns in combination with the adjective self could besides serve as reflexive pronouns, e. g.:

ʒif hwā hwæt lӯtles ǣniʒes biwistes him selfum if ʒearcode... �If any one provided himself with some small portion of food...�

Demonstrative Pronouns

� 178. There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: the proto�type of NE that, which distinguished 3 genders in the sg and had 1 form for all the genders in the pl. (see Table half-dozen) and the prototype of this with the same subdivisions: pes Masc, pēos Fem., pis Neut. and pās pl. They were declined similar adjectives according to a five-case organisation: Nom., Gen., Dat., Acc, and Instr. (the latter having a special form only in the Masc. and Neut. sg).

Table six

Declension of sē, sēo, pæt

Example	Singular	Plural
	M	N	F	All genders
Nom.	sē, se	pæt	sēo	pā
Gen.	pæs	pæs	pǣre	pāra, pǣra
Dat.	pǣm, pām	pǣm, pām	pǣre	pām, pǣm
Acc.	pone	pæt	pā	pā
Instr.	pӯ, pon	pӯ, pon	pǣre	pǣm, pām

As seen from the table, the image of the demonstrative pronoun sē contained many homonymous forms. Some case endings resembled those of personal pronouns, e.thousand. -m � Dat. Masc. and Neut. sg and Dat. pl; the chemical element -r- in the Dat. and Gen. sg Fem. and in the Gen. pl. These case endings, which do not occur in the substantive paradigms, are oftentimes re�ferred to as "pronominal" endings (-m, -r-, -t).

� 179. Demonstrative pronouns are of special importance for a stu�dent of OE for they were frequently used as noun determiners and through understanding with the noun, indicated its number, gender and case. The forms of the pronouns may help to define the forms of the nouns in am�biguous instances, e. k. in the phrases on pǣm lande, tō pære heorde �on that country, to that herd� the forms of the pronouns assistance to differenti�ate gender: pǣm is Neut. or Masc. pǣre is Fem.; both nouns are in the Dat. sg and happen to have identical endings: -due east. In the following sen�tences the forms pǣt and pā assist to distinguish between numbers:

Uton ... ʒesēon pǣt discussion (sg) �let us see that outcome�

Maniʒe cōmen to bycʒenne pā ping (pl) �many came to buy those things�

(The nouns are Neut. a-stems with homonymous sg and pl forms.)

Other Classes of Pronouns

� 180. Interrogative pronouns � hwā, Masc. and Fem., and hwæt, Neut., � had a four-case paradigm (NE who, what). The Instr. case of hwæt was used as a split interrogative word hwӯ(NE why). Some interrogative pronouns were used every bit adjective pronouns, e. g. hwelc, hwæper.

� 181. Indefinite pronouns were a numerous class embracing several simple pronouns and a large number of compounds: ān and its deriva�tive ǣniʒ (NE me, any); nān, fabricated up of ān and the negative particle ne (NE none); nānpinʒ, made up of the preceding and the noun ping (NE nothing); nāwiht/nōwiht/nōht (�nothing�, NE not), hwæt-hwuʒu �some�thing� and many others.

� 182. Pronouns of dissimilar classes � personal and demonstrative could exist used in a relative role, as connectives. The demonstra�tive sē in its various forms and the personal pronoun hē, either lonely or together with a special relative particle pe could join attributive clauses, east.g.:

Sē pe mē ʒehǣlde sē cwæð to mē �he who healed me, he said to me� (For more details and examples encounter OE syntax, �220 ff.)

THE ADJECTIVE

Grammatical Categories

� 183. As stated before, the describing word in OE could change for num�ber, gender and case. Those were dependent grammatical categories or forms of agreement of the adjective with the noun it modified or with the subject area of the sentence � if the adjective was a predicative. Like nouns, adjectives had iii genders and 2 numbers. The category of case in adjectives differed from that of nouns: in addition to the four cases of nouns they had one more example, Instr. It was used when the advert�jective served every bit an aspect to a noun in the Dat- example expressing an instrumental meaning � e. g.:

lӯtle werede �with (the help of) a small troop�.

Weak and Potent Coast

� 184. As in other OG languages, almost adjectives in OE could be declined in two ways: co-ordinate to the weak and to the strong declen�sion. The formal differences between the declensions, likewise as their origin, were similar to those of the noun declensions. The potent and weak declensions arose due to the use of several stem-forming suffixes in PG: vocalic a-, ō-, u- and i- and consonantal n-. Accordingly, at that place developed sets of endings of the strong declension mainly coinciding with the endings of a-stems of nouns for adjectives in the Masc. and Neut. and of ō-stems � in the Fem., with some differences betwixt long- and short-stemmed adjectives, variants with j- and w-, monosyllabic and polysyllabic adjectives and some remnants of other stems. Some endings in the strong coast of adjectives have no parallels in the noun paradigms; they are similar to the endings of pronouns: -um for Dat. sg, -ne for Acc. sg Masc., [r] in some Fem. and pl endings. Therefore the stiff coast of adjectives is sometimes chosen the "pronomi�nal" declension. Every bit for the weak coast, information technology uses the aforementioned markers equally northward-stems of nouns except that in the Gen. pl the pronominal ending -ra is often used instead of the weak -ena (see the paradigms in Tabular array

The relations between the declensions of nouns, adjectives and pro�nouns are shown in the post-obit chart:

� 185. The deviation between the strong and the weak declen�sion of adjectives was not simply formal merely besides semantic. Unlike a noun, an adjective did not belong to a certain type of coast. Most adjec�tives could be declined in both means. The option of the coast was adamant by a number of factors: the syntactical office of the advert�jective, the degree of comparing and the presence of noun determiners. The adjective had a strong course when used predicatively and when used attributively without whatsoever determiners, e.g.:

pā menn sindon ʒōde �the men are good�

mid hnescre beddinʒe �with soft bedding�

The weak form was employed when the adjective was preceded by a de�monstrative pronoun or the Gen. example of personal pronouns, e. g.:

Table seven

Coast of Adjectives

Singular
Strong (pure a- and ō-stems)[17]	Weak
		Northward	F	G	N	V
Nom.	bullheaded	blind	blind	blinda	blinde	blinde
Gen.	blindes	blindes	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
Dat.	blindum	blindum	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
Acc.	blindne	blind	blinde	blindan	blinde	blindan
Instr.	blinde	blinde	blindre	blindan	blindan	blindan
			Plural
				All genders
Nom.	blinde	blind	blinda, -due east	blindan
Gen.	blindra	biindra	biindra	blindra, -ena
Dat.	blindum	blindum	blindum	blindum
Acc.	blinde	blind	blinda, -e	blindan
Instr.	blindum (NE blind)	blindum	blindum	blindum

pæt weste land �that uninhabited land�

pӯ betstan lēope �with the all-time song�;

and also when the adjective formed a function of a direct address:

pūlēofa drihten �g dear Lord�.

Some adjectives, however, did non adjust with these rules: a few adjectives were e'er declined strong, eastward. one thousand. eall, maniʒ, ōper (NE all, many, other), while several others were ever weak: adjectives in the superlative and comparative degrees, ordinal numerals, the adjective ilca �same�. Despite these instances of fixed, unmotivated usage, there existed a sure semantic contrast between the potent and weak forms: the strong forms were associated with the pregnant of indefiniteness (rough�ly corresponding to the meaning of the modernistic indefinite article), the weak forms � with the significant of "correctness" (corresponding to the meaning of the definite article). Therefore the weak forms were regular�ly used together with demonstrative pronouns. The formal and semantic opposition betwixt the 2 declensions of adjectives is regarded by some historians every bit a grammatical category which can be named �the category of definiteness/indefiniteness� (A. I. Smirnitsky).

� 188. It follows that potentially OE adjectives could distinguish upwardly to sixty forms. In reality they distinguished only eleven. Homonymy of forms in the adjec�tive paradigms was three times as loftier equally in the noun. It affected the grammatical categories of the adjective to a varying caste.

Neutralisation of formal oppositions reached the highest level in the category of gender: gender distinctions were practically non-existent in the pl, they were lost in most cases of the weak coast in the sg; in the stiff declension Neut. and Masc. forms of adjectives were virtually alike.

Formal distinction of number, case and the strong and weak forms was more than consequent. As seen from Table seven, number and example were well distinguished in the stiff declension, with only a few instances of neutralisation; the distinction of number was lost only in the Dat. example, Masc. and Neut. Cf.:

æfter feawum daʒum � Dat. pl �after a few days� and

he folʒode ānum burʒsittendum menn � Dat. sg �he followed a town-dwelling man�.

The forms in the weak coast were less distinctive, as thirteen forms out of xx concluded in -an.

The formal departure between strong and weak forms was shown in all cases and both numbers, the only homonymous forms being Dat. pl and Gen. pl, � if information technology took the catastrophe -ra.

In after OE the distinction of forms in the describing word paradigm became fifty-fifty more blurred. The Instr. case roughshod together with the Dat. Numerous variant forms with phonetically reduced endings or with markers borrowed from other forms through analogy dumb the distinction of categorial forms.

Degrees of Comparison

� 187.Like adjectives in other languages, most OE adjectives dis�tinguished between three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and height. The regular ways used to grade the comparative and the elevation from the positive were the suffixes -ra and -est/ost. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied past an Interchange of the root-vowel (see Table eight).

Tabular array eight

Comparison of Adjectives in Old English language

Means of form-build�ing	Positive	Comparative	Superlative	NE
Suffixation	soft	softra	softost	soft
	wēriʒ	wēriʒra	wēriʒost	weary
Suffixation plus vowel interchange	ʒlæd	ʒlædra	ʒladost	glad
lonʒ	lenʒra	lenʒest	long
eald	ieldra	ieldest	old
(besides:	ealdra	ealdost, ealdest)
Suppletion	ʒōd	bettra	bet(east)st	practiced
	lӯtel	lǣssa	lǣst	piffling
	micel	māra	mǣst	much

The root-vowel interchanges in long, eald, ʒlæd go back to different sources. The variation [a ~ æ] is a purely phonetic phenomenon; retrac�tion of [æ] before the back vowel in the suffix -ost is non peculiar to the adjective (come across � 163 for similar interchanges in nouns and � 117 for pertinent phonetic changes). The interchange in long and eald is of an entirely different nature: the narrowed or fronted root-vowel is regularly employed as a marker of the comparative and the superlative degrees, together with the suffixes. The mutation of the root-vowel was caused past i-umlaut in Early on OE. At that phase the suffixes were either -ira, -ist or -ora, -ost. In the forms with -i- the root vowel was fronted and/or made narrower (meet palatal mutation � 125 ff); after -i- was lost or weak�ened to -east- � only the mutated root-vowel survived equally an boosted for�mal marker of the comparative and superlative degrees.

Some adjectives had parallel sets of forms: with and without a vow�el interchange. These sets could arise if the adjective had originally employed both kinds of suffixes; or else the non-mutated vowel was re�stored on the illustration of the positive degree and other adjectives without sound interchanges.

� 188. The adjective ʒōd had suppletive forms. Suppletion was a very erstwhile way of edifice the degrees of comparison (it tin be illustrat�ed by the forms of adjectives in other IE languages: G gut, besser, beste, Fr mal, pire, R �������, �����).

THE VERB

� 189.The OE verb was characterised by many peculiar features. Though the verb had few grammatical categories, its epitome had a

very complicated construction: verbs fell into numerous morphological classes and employed a variety of form-edifice means. All the forms of the verb were synthetic, as analytical forms were only beginning to appear. The not-finite forms had little in common with the finite forms only shared many features with the nominal parts of speech.

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