2.4. Declension

In OE as in the other Germanic languages all the nouns were divided into 3 categories according to the stem which could end either in a vowel or in a consonant:

1. nouns, whose stem originally ended in a vowel, belonged to the vowel or strong declension;

2. nouns, whose stem originally ended in –n, belonged to the consonant or weak declension;

3. nouns with all the other consonant stems that could be put together under the general name of minor declension.

It is impossible to determine the stem of a noun without a glossary.

The vowel (strong) declension comprises four principal paradigms: the a-stem, the ō-stem, the u-stem and the i-stem paradigms.

The consonant declension comprises nouns with the stem originally ending in –n, -r, -s and some other consonants.

In rare cases, however, the new form is constructed by adding the ending directly to the root. It is these words that formed the so-called root-stem declension.

Table 3.1 Declensions in Old English

Declension Case and number	Vowel (strong) stems	Consonant (weak) stem	Root stems
	a ō u i	n r s
Nom. Sing.	stān caru sunu wine ‘stone’ ‘care’ ‘son’ ‘wine’	nama fæder lamb ‘name’ ‘father’ ‘lamb’	fōt ‘foot’
Nom. Plur.	stānas cara suna wine	naman fæderos lamb	fēt

2.4.1. Strong declension.

Vowel stems. Declension of a-stem nouns

This type of declension consists of the masculine and the neuter genders of OE nouns. As a rule, those are common everyday words that formed the very core of the word-stock, such as: hlāf ‘bread’, hwærte ‘wheat’, hors ‘horse’, fisc ‘fish’, scip ‘ship’, etc.

As is seen from Table 3.2, the paradigm of the a-stem nouns is characterised by the homonymity of the Nominative and Accusative case-forms. The rest of the forms retain their endings. The difference between the genders of the nouns is clearly seen from different endings in the Nominative and the Accusative plural, i.e. -as for the masculine and -u for the neuter. (Nouns which had a long stem syllable had the zero ending in the Nominative and the Accusative plural (such as scēap ‘sheep’, land ‘land’, etc.)

Table 3.2 Declension of a-stem nouns

Gender Case		Masculine	Neuter
Singular	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	stān ‘stone’ stānes stāne stān	scip ‘ship’ scipes scipe scip
Plural	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	stānas stāna stānum stānas	scipu scipa scipum scipu

A-stem nouns formed the most numerous class in OE. The endings of the Nom. pl. and the Acc. pl. cases of the masculine nouns -as later developed into the plural ending of nouns in Mod E.

2.4.2 Weak declension.

Consonant stems. Declension of n-stem nouns

The consonant declensions consisted of nouns with the stem originally ending in –n, -r, -s and other consonants.

The n-stem class was formed by nouns of all the three genders, such as nama ‘name’ – masculine, tunge ‘tongue’ – feminine, eae ‘eye’ – neuter.

Table 3.3

Declension of n-stem nouns

	Gender Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	nama ‘name’ naman naman naman	tunge ‘tongue’ tungan tungan tungan	eae ‘eye’ eaan eaan eae
Plural	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	naman namena namum naman	tungan tungena tungum tungan	eaan eaena eaum eaan

The n-stem was the most important among all the consonant stem declensions. This class of nouns was composed of common words. The group was very extensive in OE and like the a-stem declension it exhibited a tendency to spread its forms over other declensions.

The original stem-suffix –n may be observed in the majority of case forms, but very often the grammatical ending had been dropped in the pre-written period; this phenomenon gave rise to a well-marked homonymity of the noun forms of the declension. Five case forms of the masculine and the feminine genders – all the Singular with the exception of the Nom. and the Nom. and the Acc. Plural are homonymous, in case of neuter nouns only four forms are homonymous, as the Acc. Case of neuter nouns is homonymous to the Nom.

The peculiarities of formation of the plural forms of n-stem nouns have been retained in Mod E in the words oxen, children, brethren.