2.4.3. Minor declension. Declension of root-stem nouns

Root-stems require special consideration. This class was not extensive and stood apart among other OE nouns due to peculiarities of form-building which was partly retained in ModE.

Unlike other classes the root-stem nouns such as man (‘man’, masculine), mûs (‘mouse’, feminine) originally had no stem-suffix and the grammatical ending was added directly to the root. As a result of this, in the Dative sg. and the Nom. and the Acc. pl. the root vowel had undergone palatal mutation due to the i-sound in the grammatical ending of these forms. Later the ending was dropped and vowel interchange remained the only means of differentiating the given forms in the paradigm. (The feminine nouns with the short root had the ending –u in the Nom. and the Acc. sg., and –e in the Nom. and the Acc. pl.). The endings of the rest of the forms are built up on analogy with those of the a-stems, hence the difference between genders can be observed only in the Gen. sg.: -es for the masculine, -e for the feminine.

Table 3.4 Declension of root-stem nouns

Gender Case		Masculine	Feminine
Singular	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	mann ‘man’ mannes menn mann	mūs ‘mouse’ mūse mỹs mūs
Plural	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	menn manna mannum menn	mỹs mūsa mūsum mỹs

Declension of r-stem nouns

r-stems are represented by a few masculine and feminine nouns denoting relationship: fæder ‘father’, broþor ‘brother’, modor ‘mother’, dohtor ‘daughter’, sweostor ‘sister’. The dative sg. of these nouns usually has mutation, as in root-stem nouns.

Table 3.5 Declension of r-stem nouns

Gender Case		Masculine	Feminine
Singular	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	fæder ‘father’ fæder, -es fæder fæder	modor ‘mother’ modor meder modor
Plural	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	fæderas fædera fæderum fæderas	modru, -a modra modrum modru, -a

The r-stems given in the Table correspond to the Latin 3^rd declension substantives pater and mater.

Relics of es-stems

A few neuter nouns have preserved in OE a system of declension showing an r-element in all cases of the plural. This –r comes from the Indo-European stem-building suffix –es. In OE according to Verner’s law s > r.

Table 3.6 Declension of es-stem nouns

Gender Case		Neuter
Singular	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	lamb ‘lamb’ lambes lambe lamb	cild ‘child’ cildes cilde cild
Plural	Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative	lambru lambra lambrum lambru	cild, cildru cilda, cildra cildum cild, cildru

Es-stem nouns correspond to the Latin 3^rd declension substantives of the type genus ‘gender’ – genera, opus ‘work’ – opera.