OLD ENGLISH PARADIGMS The noun: General Masculine Declension: Cyning KING Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular cyning cyning cyninges cyninge
Plural cyningas cyningas cyninga cyningum
stān ‘stone’, að ‘oath’, bāt ‘boat’, hlāf ‘loaf’, hengest ‘horse’, æðeling ‘prince’, feond ‘foe’ freond , ‘ friend’. The noun: General Feminine Declension: Talu TALE Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular talu tale tale tale
Plural tala tala tala talum
glōf ‘glove’, bōt ‘advantage’, brycg ‘bridge’, eaxl ‘shoulder’, ecg ‘edge’, hwīl ‘space of time’, rōd ‘cross’, sorg ‘sorrow’ The noun: General Neuter Declension: Scip SHIP Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular scip scip scipes scipe
Plural scipu scipu scipa scipum
Like scip are bod ‘command’, brim ‘sea’, lim ‘limb’, gewrit ‘writing’ Like word are bān ‘bone’, bearn ‘child’, folc ‘people’, sceap ‘sheep’, sweord ‘sword’, land ‘land’
The noun: THE -AN DECLENSION Weak, Masculine: Nama NAME Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular nama naman naman naman
Plural naman naman namena namum
Weak, Feminine: Tunge TONGUE Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular Tunge Tungan Tungan Tungan
Plural Tungan Tungan Tungena Tungum
Weak, Neuter: Eage EYE Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular Eage Eage Eagan Eagan
Plural Eagan Eagan Eagena Eagum
The noun: Irregular declensions These minor declensions can be subdivided into three groups, classified by their way of forming the plural: (a) -a plurals, (b) uninflected plurals, (c) ‘mutation’ plurals.
(a) The -a plural declension includes the masculines: sunu SON, wudu WOOD, the feminines: duru DOOR, nosu NOSE and hond HAND. Hond declines like the others, except that it has an endingless nominative and accusative singular. Sunu SON Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular sunu sunu suna suna
Plural suna suna suna sunum
(b) In general, uninflected plurals decline like the General Masculine, Feminine and Neuter Declensions above, except that the nominative and accusative plural is the same as the nominative and accusative singular. Of importance here are ‘relationship’ nouns: fæder FATHER belongs to the General Masculine Declension (except that the dative singular and, sometimes, the genitive singular are endingless), but masculine broðor BROTHER and feminine modor MOTHER, dohtor DAUGHTER decline according to the following paradigm: Dohtor DAUGHTER Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular dohtor dohtor dohtor dehter
Plural dohtor dohtor dohtra dohtrum
Sweostor SISTER follows the same paradigm, except that the dative singular is identical to the nominative/accusative/genitive singular. (c) ‘Mutation’ plurals are so-called because the dative singular and some of the plural forms change the stressed vowel of the singular form; this reflects a prehistoric OE sound-change, known as ‘i-mutation’ or ‘i-umlaut’. The details of this sound-change need not concern us here, although something similar happens in PD German in the alternation between Apfel APPLE and Äpfel APPLES. A number of these nouns remain irregular in PDE, e.g. fot FOOT, gos GOOSE, mus MOUSE, but others, e.g. boc BOOK, freond FRIEND, have become regular. Fot provides a useful model paradigm, although other nouns show minor deviations from this model.
fot FOOT (masc.) Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular fot fot fotes fet
Plural fet fet fota fotum
mann MAN (masc.) Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular mann mann mannes menn
Plural menn menn manna mannum
boc BOOK (fem.) Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular boc boc bec bec
Plural bec bec boca bocum
PRONOUNS First person: Iċ I Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular iċ me min me
Plural we us ure us
Second person: Þu (ðu) You (thou) Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Singular Þu Þe Þin Þe
Plural ge eow eower eow
Third person Third person pronouns are distinguished not only by number and case, but also by gender. Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
Masculine he hine his him
Singular Feminine heo hie hiere hiere
Neuter hit hit his him
Plural All genders hie hie hiera him
Min, þin, ure, eower may be declined like strong adjectives; his, hiere, hiera are indeclinable.
In OE there are also dual forms of the first and second person pronouns: Person: First, Second: WE TWO; YOU TWO Case Nominative Accusative Genitive Dative
WE TWO wit unc uncer unc
YOU TWO git inc incer inc
The dual pronouns are comparatively rare in OE, and died out entirely early in the ME period.
