INFLECTIONS.
NOUNS.
Gender. There are three genders in O.E.—masculine, neuter, and feminine. The gender is partly natural, partly
grammatical. By the natural gender names of male beings, such as se mann (the man), are masculine; of female beings, such as sēo dohtor (the daughter), are feminine; and of young creatures, such as þæt ċild (the child), neuter. Note, however, that þæt wīf (woman) is neuter.
Grammatical gender is known only by the gender of the article and other words connected with the noun, and, to some extent, by its form. Thus all nouns ending in -a, such as se mōna (moon), are masculine, sēo sunne (sun) being feminine. Those ending in -dōm, -hād, and -sċipe are also masculine:—se wīsdōm (wisdom), se ċildhād (childhood), se frēondsċipe (friendship). Those in -nes, -o (from adjectives) -rǣden, and -ung are feminine:—sēo rihtwīsnes (righteousness), sēo bieldo (boldness) from beald, sēo mann-rǣden (allegiance), sēo scotung (shooting).
Compounds follow the gender of their last element, as in þæt burg-ġeat (city-gate), from sēo burg and þæt ġeat. Hence also se wīf-mann (woman) is masculine.
The gender of most words can be learnt only by practice, and the student should learn each noun with its proper definite article.
Strong and Weak. Weak nouns are those which form their inflections with n, such as se mōna, plural mōnan; sēo sunne, genitive sing. þǣre sunnan. All the others, such as se dæġ, pl. dagas, þæt hūs (house), gen. sing. þæs hūses, are strong.
Cases. There are four cases, nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. The acc. is the same as the nom. in all plurals, in the sing. of all neuter nouns, and of all strong masculines. Masculine and neuter nouns never differ in the plural except in the nom. and acc., and in the singular they differ only in the acc. of weak nouns, which in neuters is the same as the nom. The dative plural of nearly all nouns ends in -um.
STRONG MASCULINES.
(1) as-plurals.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom[[3]]. | stān (stone). | Nom. | stān-as. |
| Dat. | stān-e. | Dat. | stān-um. |
| Gen. | stān-es. | Gen. | stān-a. |
So also dǣl (part), cyning (king), ċildhād (childhood).
dæġ (day) changes its vowel in the pl. (p. [5]):—dæġ, dæġe, dæġes; dagas, dagum, daga.
Nouns in -e have nom. and dat. sing. the same:—ęnde, (end), ęnde, ęndes; ęndas, ęndum, ęnda.
Nouns in -el, -ol, -um, -en, -on, -er, -or often contract:—ęnġel (angel), ęnġle, ęnġles; ęnġlas, ęnġlum, ęnġla. So also næġel (nail), þeġen (thane), ealdor (prince). Others, such as æcer (field), do not contract.
h after a consonant is dropped in inflection (p. [7]), as in feorh (life), fēore, fēores. So also in Wealh (Welshman), plur. Wēalas.
There are other classes which are represented only by a few nouns each.
(2) e-plurals.
A few nouns which occur only in the plur.:—lēode (people), lēodum, lēoda. So also several names of nations:—Ęnġle (English), Dęne (Danes); Seaxe (Saxons), Mierċe (Mercians), have gen. plur. Seaxna, Mierċna.
(3) Mutation-plurals.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | fōt (foot). | Nom. | fēt. |
| Dat. | fēt. | Dat. | fōt-um. |
| Gen. | fōt-es. | Gen. | fōt-a. |
So also tōþ (tooth). Mann (man), męnn, mannes; męnn, mannum, manna.
(4) u-nouns.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | sun-u (son). | Nom. | sun-a. |
| Dat. | sun-a. | Dat. | sun-um. |
| Gen. | sun-a. | Gen. | sun-a. |
So also wudu (wood).
(5) r-nouns (including feminines).
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | mōdor (mother). | Nom. | mōdor. |
| Dat. | mēder. | Dat. | mōdr-um. |
| Gen. | mōdor. | Gen. | mōdr-a. |
So also brōþor (brother); fæder (father), dohtor (daughter), have dat. sing. fæder, dehter.
(6) nd-nouns.
Formed from the present participle of verbs.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | frēond (friend). | Nom. | frīend. |
| Dat. | frīend. | Dat. | frēond-um. |
| Gen. | frēond-es. | Gen. | frēond-a. |
So also fēond (enemy).
Those in -end inflect thus:—būend (dweller), būend, būendes; būend, būendum, būendra. So also Hǣlend (saviour). The -ra is an adjectival inflection.
STRONG NEUTERS.
(1) u-plurals.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | sċip (ship). | Nom. | sċip-u. |
| Dat. | sċip-e. | Dat. | sċip-um. |
| Gen. | sċip-es. | Gen. | sċip-a. |
So all neuters with short final syllable, such as ġe·bed (prayer), ġe·writ (writing), ġeat (gate).
Fæt (vessel), fæte, fætes; fatu, fatum, fata (p. [5]).
Rīċe (kingdom), rīċe, rīċes; rīċu, rīċum, rīċa. So also all neuters in e, except ēage and ēare (p. [13]): ġe·þēode (language), styċċe (piece).
Those in -ol, -en, -or, &c. are generally contracted:—dēofol (devil), dēofles, dēoflu. So also wǣpen (weapon), mynster (monastery), wundor (wonder).
(2) Unchanged plurals.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | hūs (house). | Nom. | hūs. |
| Dat. | hūs-e. | Dat. | hūs-um. |
| Gen. | hūs-es. | Gen. | hūs-a. |
So all others with long final syllables (that is, containing a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by more than one consonant), such as bearn (child), folc (nation), wīf (woman).
Feoh (money) drops its h in inflection and lengthens the eo:—feoh, fēo, fēos. So also bleoh (colour).
STRONG FEMININES.
(1) a-plurals.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | |||
| (a) | Nom. | ġief-u (gift). | Nom. | ġief-a. |
| Acc. | ġief-e. | Acc. | ġief-a. | |
| Dat. | ġief-e. | Dat. | ġief-um. | |
| Gen. | ġief-e. | Gen. | ġief-ena. | |
So also lufu (love), scamu (shame). Duru (door) is an u-noun: it has acc. duru, d., g. dura, g. pl. dura. Observe that all these nouns have a short syllable before the final vowel. When it is long, the u is dropped, and the noun falls under (b).
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | |||
| (b) | Nom. | sprǣċ (speech). | Nom. | sprǣċ-a. |
| Acc. | sprǣċ-e. | Acc. | sprǣċ-a. | |
| Dat. | sprǣċ-e. | Dat. | sprǣċ-um. | |
| Gen. | sprǣċ-e. | Gen. | sprǣċ-a. | |
So also strǣt (street), sorg (sorrow). Some have the acc. sing. the same as the nom., such as dǣd, hand, miht.
Those in -ol, -er, -or, &c. contract:—sāwol (soul), sāwle, sāwla, sāwlum. So also ċeaster (city), hlǣdder (ladder).
Some in -en double the n in inflection:—byrþen (burden), byrþenne. So also those in -rǣden, such as hierdrǣden (guardianship). Those in -nes also double the s in inflection: gōdnes (goodness), gōdnesse.
(2) Mutation-plurals.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | bōc (book). | Nom. | bēċ. |
| Dat. | bēċ. | Dat. | bōc-um. |
| Gen. | bēċ. | Gen. | bōc-a. |
Burg (city), byriġ, burge; byriġ, burgum, burga.
(3) Indeclinable.
| SINGULAR. | |
| Nom. | bieldo (boldness). |
| Dat. | bieldo. |
| Gen. | bieldo. |
So also ieldo (age).
For r-nouns, see under Masculines.
WEAK MASCULINES.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | nam-a (name). | Nom. | nam-an. |
| Acc. | nam-an. | Acc. | nam-an. |
| Dat. | nam-an. | Dat. | nam-um. |
| Gen. | nam-an. | Gen. | nam-ena. |
So also all nouns in -a:—ġe·fēra (companion), guma (man), ġe·lēafa (belief). Ieldran (elders) occurs only in the plural.
Ġe·fēa (joy) is contracted throughout:—ġefēa, ġefēan.
WEAK NEUTERS.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | ēag-e (eye). | Nom. | ēag-an. |
| Acc. | ēag-e. | Acc. | ēag-an. |
| Dat. | ēag-an. | Dat. | ēag-um. |
| Gen. | ēag-an. | Gen. | ēag-ena. |
So also ēare 'ear.'
WEAK FEMININES.
| SINGULAR. | PLURAL. | ||
| Nom. | sunn-e (sun). | Nom. | sunn-an. |
| Acc. | sunn-an. | Acc. | sunn-an. |
| Dat. | sunn-an. | Dat. | sunn-um. |
| Gen. | sunn-an. | Gen. | sunn-ena. |
So also ċiriċe (church), fǣmne (virgin), heorte (heart).
Lēo (lion) has acc., &c. lēon.
PROPER NAMES.
Native names of persons are declined like other nouns:—Ælfred, gen. Ælfredes, dat. Ælfrede; Ēad-burg (fem.), gen. Ēadburge, &c.
Foreign names of persons sometimes follow the analogy of native names, thus Crīst, Salomon have gen. Crīstes, Salomones, dat. Crīste, Salomone. Sometimes they are declined as in Latin, especially those in -us, but often with a mixture of English endings, and the Latin endings are used
somewhat loosely, the accus. ending being often extended to the other oblique cases; thus we find nom. Cȳrus, gen. Cȳres, acc. Cȳrum, dat. Cȳrum (þǣm cyninge Cȳrum).
Almost the only names of countries and districts in Old English are those taken from Latin, such as Breten (Britain), Cęnt (Kent), Ġermānia (Germany), and those formed by composition, generally with land, such as Ęnġla-land (land of the English, England), Isr·ahēla-þēod (Israel). In both of these cases the first element is in the gen. pl., but ordinary compounds, such as Scot-land, also occur. In other cases the name of the inhabitants of a country is used for the country itself:—on Ēast-ęnġlum = in East-anglia, lit. 'among the East-anglians.' So also on Angel-cynne = in England, lit. 'among the English race,' more accurately expressed by Angelcynnes land.
Uncompounded names of countries are sometimes undeclined. Thus we find on Cęnt, tō Hierusalēm.
Ġermānia, Asia, and other foreign names in -a take -e in the oblique cases, thus gen. Ġermānie.