2. The Adjective

Originally, the IE adjective does not seem to have differed from the noun in its paradigm (a set of endings). This is corroborated by facts like the Russian добр молодец, добра молодца, добру молодцу or the Latin amicus bonus, amicis bonis, etc. But later the declension of adjectives was in most cases separated from that of nouns, acquiring some pronominal inflections. In Russian, e.g. the declension of full adjectives is now almost entirely pronominal, e.g. того красного стола, тому красному столу.

Likewise, the paradigms of Germanic adjectives contained many pronominal endings. This pronominal declension is usually called strong. But apart from it, there developed a new declension called weak or nominal and connected with the n- stems nouns.

Every adjective was declined both according to the strong declension (with a vocalic stem) and to the weak declension (with an –n-stem).

The choice depended on the presence or absence of a demonstrative or possessive pronoun or a similar defining word before the adjective. Weak declension forms were used when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the definite article. In all other contexts, forms of the strong declension were used. This usage has been well preserved in Modern German. Cf. diese guten Männer (these good men), where after the demonstrative diese the adjective has the – n suffix of the weak declension and gute Männer (good men), where without the demonstrative pronoun the adjective is strong. Owing to its connection with defining words the weak declension is called definite as opposed to the indefinite strong declension.

In Modern Russian, there have remained some 10 n- stem nouns, e.g. племя – плем-ен-и, знамя – знам-ен-и, etc. In other IE languages, particularly in Gc languages, that class of nouns was much more numerous. Many of them were derived from adjectives and denoted persons or things possessing the qualities indicated by the corresponding adjectives. Thus, the Latin proper name Cato (Catonis) (the sly one, хитрец) was derived from the adjective catus (sly). The Greek name Platon comes from the adjective platys (flat, broad-shouldered). The Russian noun тихоня comes from the adjective тихий. Such nouns are believed to have been regularly used as apposition to other nouns, denoting the qualities of persons or things and eventually to have turned into adjectives (Сf конек-горбунок, кремень-камень). Their declension was therefore identical with the declension of n-stem nouns. Later, by analogy, this declension spread to almost all adjectives, so that each could be declined either according to the weak or according to the strong declension.

3. The Verb

In Germanic languages the verbs fell into three large groups: strong verbs, weak verbs and preterite-present verbs. Besides these groups, there were also anomalous verbs, which did not belong to any of the preceding groups.

The system of strong verbs was based on vowel gradation (ablaut), which is also found in verbs of other IE languages: Ancient Greek, Latin. Every strong verb had four basic forms: the infinitive, the past singular, the past plural, the past participle. According to the type of gradation, all strong verbs fell into seven classes. The first five classes had such ablaut rows as i – a – zero.

The gradation series in class VI is a-ō-ō-a.

Verbs of class VII had no vowel alternation. They built their past tense forms with the help of reduplication: