The singular of nouns of this declension was inflected like the a-stems ([§ 42]) already in OHG. And owing to the weakening of the case-endings of the plural in passing from OHG. to MHG. ([§ 7]), the only difference in the two declensions is the presence or absence of umlaut in the plural. The old masculine i-stems which could not have umlaut in the plural accordingly came to be inflected entirely like the old masculine a-stems, as schrit, step, snit, cut, biȥ, bite, pl. schrite, snite, biȥȥe. A further consequence of the singular being inflected alike in both declensions is that the old a-stems began to have umlaut in the plural after the analogy of the i-stems, as gedenke, thoughts, nägele, nails, wägene, wagons, beside gedanke, nagele, wagene.
Nouns ending in the fortis p, t, c, or f (= Germanic f) regularly change the fortis to lenis in the inflected forms, as korp, basket, walt, wood, slac, blow, brief, letter, gen. korbes, waldes, stages, brieves.
[§ 45.] The old consonant stems vater, father, bruoder, brother, often remain uninflected in the singular, as gen. vater, bruoder beside vaters, bruoders (cp. [§ 9, 2]). In the plural they take umlaut, as veter, brüeder. The old consonant stem man, man, is either declined like tac ([§ 42]) or remains uninflected throughout, as
| Sing. | Plur. | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. Acc. | man | manne, man |
| Gen. | mannes, man | manne, man |
| Dat. | manne, man | mannen, man |
The nom. plural man, now written mann, is still preserved in counting, as hundert mann, a hundred men.
2. Neuter Nouns.
[§ 46.] First Declension.—To this declension belong all neuter nouns which have their nominative case singular and plural alike. It includes three different types of nouns: (a) The old neuter a-stems like wort, word, venster, window. (b) The old neuter ja-stems like künne, race, generation, bette, bed, netze, net. The characteristic of this type of noun is that it has umlaut in all forms of the singular and plural when the stem-vowel is capable of it (cp. [§ 31, 3]). And (c) the old neuter wa-stems (cp. [§ 36]) like knie, knee, gen. kniewes.
| Sing. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. Acc. | wort | venster | künne | knie |
| Gen. | wortes | vensters | künnes | kniewes (knies) |
| Dat. | worte | venster | künne | kniewe (knie) |
| Plur. | ||||
| Nom. Acc. | wort | venster | künne | knie |
| Gen. | worte | venster | künne | kniewe (knie) |
| Dat. | worten | venstern | künnen | kniewen (knien) |
(a) On the interchange between the fortes p, t, c and the lenes b, d, g, as in grap, grave, gëlt, money, dinc, thing, gen. grabes, gëldes, dinges, see [§ 33].
Like venster are declined the neuter polysyllabic nouns ending in -el, -em, -en, -er, as luoder, bait, wāfen, wāpen, weapon; schapel, garland, gadem, house, wëter, weather. On the endings, see §§ [9], [42].