Remnants of Other Consonant Declensions.
[67.]
The nouns belonging here are chiefly masculines and feminines. Their stem ended in a consonant other than n. The most important of them may be divided as follows: (1) The foot Declension, (2) r-Stems, and (3) nd-Stems. These declensions are all characterized by the prevalence, wherever possible, of i-umlaut in certain cases, the case ending being then dropped.
[68.]
(1) The nouns belonging to the foot Declension exhibit umlaut most consistently in the N.A. plural.
| Sing. N.A. | sē fōt (foot) | sē mǫn (man) | sē tōð (tooth) | sēo cū (cow) |
| Plur N.A. | fēt | męn | tēð | cȳ |
Note.—The dative singular usually has the same form as the N.A. plural. Here belong also sēo bōc (book), sēo burg (borough), sēo gōs (goose), sēo lūs (louse), and sēo mūs (mouse), all with umlauted plurals. Mn.E. preserves only six of the foot Declension plurals: feet, men, teeth, geese, lice, and mice. The c in the last two is an artificial spelling, intended to preserve the sound of voiceless s. Mn.E. kine (= cy-en) is a double plural formed after the analogy of weak stems; Burns in The Twa Dogs uses kye.
No umlaut is possible in sēo niht (night) and sē mōnað (month), plural niht and mōnað (preserved in Mn.E. twelvemonth and fortnight).
(2) The r-Stems contain nouns expressing kinship, and exhibit umlaut of the dative singular.
| Sing. N.A. | sē fæder (father) | sē brōðor (brother) | sēo mōdor (mother) | sēo dohtor (daughter) | sēo swuster (sister) |
| D. | fæder | brēðer | mēder | dęhter | swyster |