[§ 54.] Names of persons ending in e in the nominative follow the weak declension. Masculine names of persons take -es in the genitive, -e in the dative, and -en in the accusative after the analogy of the strong adjectives. The accusative ending -en was sometimes extended to the dative, and the dative ending -e to the accusative. And sometimes both these cases were without endings. Names of countries ending in -lant often have no ending in the dative, as Engellant beside Engellande, see [§ 41]. Feminine names of persons ending in a consonant take -e in the genitive, dative and accusative, but occasionally remain uninflected throughout.
| Masculine. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | Sīfrit | Hagene |
| Gen. | Sīfrides | Hagenen |
| Dat. Acc. | Sīfrit, Sīfride(n) | Hagenen |
| Feminine. | ||
| Nom. | Kriemhilt | Uote |
| Gen. Dat. Acc. | Kriemhilde, Kriemhilt | Uoten |
[ CHAPTER IV]
ADJECTIVES
A. The Declension of Adjectives.
1. The Strong Declension.
[§ 55.] The MHG. adjectives are declined as strong or weak. They have three genders, and the same cases as nouns. The endings of the strong declension are partly nominal and partly pronominal. The nominal endings are: the accusative feminine singular, as blinde like gëbe ([§ 48]); and the genitive singular masculine and neuter, as blindes like tages, wortes (§§ [43], [46]). All the other endings are pronominal. The so-called uninflected form of adjectives in the nom. singular masculine and feminine and the nom. acc. neuter is a remnant of the time when adjectives and nouns were declined alike, see the Author’s Hist. Germ. Grammar, §§ 399-400. The strong declension includes three different types of adjectives, all of which are declined alike: (a) The old a-stems, as blint, infl. form blinter, blind; bar, bare, guot, good, heilec, holy, hol, hollow, michel, great, vinster, dark, and similarly with a very large number of adjectives, including the past participles of strong and weak verbs. (b) The old ja-stems, as lære (OHG. lāri), infl. lærer, empty; dünne, thin, enge, narrow, grüene, green, niuwe, new, reine, pure, schœne, beautiful, senfte, soft, wilde, wild, and many others, including the present participles of strong and weak verbs. The ja-stems only differ from the a-stems in having -e in the uninflected form and umlaut in the stem-syllable when it is capable of it. (c) The old wa-stems, as blā (OHG. blāo, blā), infl. form blāwer, blue; gar (OHG. garo), infl. form garwer (see §§ [9, 1], [36]), ready; grā, grey, val, fallow, gël, yellow, kal, bald, &c., all of which have w in the inflected forms.
The adjectival i- and u-stems had come to be declined like the ja-stems in the prehistoric period of the language, but a few remnants of such adjectives have survived in MHG. in forms without the final -e beside those with it, as bereit, bereite, ready, dic, dicke, thick, gāch, gæhe, quick, grīs, grīse, old, grey, hēr, hēre, high, noble, rasch, resche, quick, rīch, rīche, noble, swā, swære, heavy, was, wasse, sharp.
| Sing. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Masc. | Neut. | Fem. | |
| Nom. | blinder, blind | blindeȥ | blindiu |
| Acc. | blinden | blindeȥ | blinde |
| Gen. | blindes | blindes | blinder(e) |
| Dat. | blindem(e) | blindem(e) | blinder(e) |
| Plur. | |||
| Nom. | blinde | blindiu | blinde |
| Acc. | blinde | blindiu | blinde |
| Gen. | blinder(e) | blinder(e) | blinder(e) |
| Dat. | blinden | blinden | blinden |
On the loss of the -e in blindem(e), blinder(e), see [§ 9, 2]. Umlaut caused by the -iu occurs in the nom. sing. feminine and nom. acc. pl. neuter of al, all, and ander, other, second, as älliu, ändriu. This rarely happens in other words.