Strong Neuter Nouns

There are two basic patterns for strong neuter nouns.

Strong Neuter Noun scip (ship) (a-stem)

Strong Neuter Noun word (word) (a-stem)

Notice that they differ only in the Nominative and Accusative plural. Looking at the stems of the two words, you should notice that scip is short-stemmed (contains a short vowel followed by one consonant), and that word is long-stemmed (such stems either contain a long vowel, or, as in word, the vowel is followed by more than one consonant).

So we have a rule that long-stemmed neuter a-nouns drop the nominative and accusative plural "-u" endings.

Strong Feminine Noun giefu (gift) (ō – stem)

Irregular strong nouns:

· Nouns with the vowel æ in the singular change it into a in the plural. E.g.: dæg (day, Masc., Nom., sg) – dagas (Nom., pl).

· Nouns of ja- stems are a special type of a-stems. Their root vowel undergoes mutation under the influence of an original –j- in the stem. Their case endings do not differ very much from a-stem nouns; some masculine and neuter ja-nouns end in -e in their base form. These drop the -e and add normal endings.

· wa-stems are another special type of a-stems. The nominative and accusative singular of the masculine nouns and the nominative and accusative singular and plural of the neuter ones end in –u.

· jō- and wō-stems are special types of ō-stems (feminine strong nouns).

A few nouns follow the -u declension, with an entirely different set of endings. Among these are masculine and feminine substantives. Nouns with a short root syllable have in the nominative and accusative singular the ending –u; those with a long one have no ending at all.

Strong -u declension

sunu (son) (Masc.)

feld (field) (Fem.)

i-stems nouns comprise nouns of all three genders. The masculine and neuter i-stems do not mush differ in their declension from the a-stems, and the feminine ones do not much differ from the ō-stems. The root vowel has undergone mutation.

sige (m., ‘victory’);

cwēn (f., woman).

Weak Nouns

Weak nouns are so called because they have less variation in form than the so-called "strong nouns." They are not a very numerous group of nouns, but they are frequently encountered, and it helps to know the declension.

Weak Masculine Noun cnapa (boy)

Weak Feminine Noun sunne (sun)

Weak Neuter Noun ēage (eye)

Root –stems noun are present in all Germanic languages, these noun never had any stem-forming suffix, so the the case endings were added on immediately to the root. These nouns represent the oldest type.

r-stems are represented by a few masculine and feminine nouns denoting relationship.

Masculine r-stem noun fæder (father)

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1979