The System of Cases in OE period and types of Declension



           There were four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative.

Table 1

Strong Declension of OE Nouns

(vocalic stems -a-, -o-, -u-, -i-) (a-stem (inducing Stem))

Singular

Case Masculine

Neuter

    Short-stemmed Long-stemmed
N. G. D. Ac. hlāford         (n. m. a.) hlāford-es hlāford-e hlāford NE – lord scip     (n. n. a.) scip-es scip-e scip NE – ship scēāp  (n. n. a.) scēāp-es scēāp-e scēāp NE – sheep
  Note -ja-, -wa- variants of a-stem    
Case

Plural

N. G. D. Ac. hlāford-as hlāford-a hlāford-um hlāford-as scip-u scip-a scip-um scip-u sceap (u)* sceap-a sceap-um sceap (-u-)
  *u was lost in the course of time    

           As you can see from this table, the inflexion were the some in all cases except Nominative and Accusative in plural form. The plural form of the noun of the neuter gender has the inflexion -u-, because the stem syllable in the word “scip” is short. If the stem syllable is long (in the nouns of neuter gender) the inflexion was lost in the course of time in Nominative case and Accusative case.

           The long system is not only diphthongs but the combination of a vowel with two consonants (one of them is sonant -r-).

Case Singular Plural
N. G. D. Ac. word        (n. n. a.) word-es word-e word word word-a word-um word

Table 2

Strong Declension of OE Nouns -o- stem

(-jo-, -wo-) – stem (inducting stem)

Case Singular Plural
N. G. D. Ac. caru     (n. f. o.) car-e car-e car-e car-a car-a (-eu) car-um car-a

 

The nouns of feminine gender belong to this group of nouns.

Table 3

Strong Declension of OE Nouns -i- stem

(masculine, feminine, neuter)

Case Singular Plural Singular Plural
N. G. D. Ac. mete mete-s mete mete mete-as met-a met-um mete-as hilt hilt-es hilt-e hilt-e hilt-as hilt-a hilt-um hilt-as

 

Table 4

U-stem Declension

(masculine, feminine but without any grammatical discrimination)

Case

Single

Plural

  Short-stem. Long-stemmed Short-stemmed Long-stemmed
N. G. D. Ac. sunu sun-a sun-a sunu fēld fēld-a fēld-a fēld sun-a sun-a sun-um sun-a fēld-a fēld-a fēld-um fēld-a
  NE - son NE - field

 

Table 5

Weak declension

(consonant declension n-stem)

Case

Singular

Plural
  Masc. Neut. Femin. All genders*
N. G. D. Ac. nama nama-n nama-n nama-n ēāre ēār-an ēār-an ēār-an tun -e tun -an tun -an tun -an nam-an* nam-ena nam-um nam-an
  NE - name NE - ear NE - tongue  

*In plural the endings of the nouns of all the three degrees coincided.

 

           Another name for Strong Declension is Vocal Stem Declension; for Weak Declension – Consonant Stem Declension.

           Expert the strong and weak declensions of nouns there was the so-called root-declension in OE. The nouns of all genders belonged to this type of declension. The number of such nouns was not great, but some of them are still in NE.

           They form a group of nouns which form their plural form by means of changing the root-vowel, but not by means of ending -s-. E. g.: man-men, goose-geese.

Table 6

Root-stem Declension of OE Nouns

Case

Singular

Plural

N.

G.

D.

Ac.

fōt fōt-es fet fōt mūs mūs-es m s mūs fēt fōt-a fōtum fēt m s mus-a musum m s
NE - foot NE - mouse NE - feet NE - mice

 

           In the course of time fot-es => fot, according to the palatal mutation (under the influence of “i” (e)).

The result was

Case Singular Case Plural
N. Ac. fōt N. Ac. fēt

 

           Some declensions were inducing, others – non- inducing. Inducing declensions were the most productive ones (a-stem), (o-stem).

II. Middle English Nouns

           The reduction of declension began still in OE period: many -i-stem and -u-stem nouns were influenced by the -a-stem and -o-stem nouns. In addition, some vacillation was already observed within the -a-declension and -o-declension. All this showed a reduction in the morphological system of noun. In the 11th - 13th centuries this tendency developed more intensively. Weakening of inflections is connected with leveling of unstressed endings.

           In the Northern and Midland dialects differences of grammatical gender was already lost in the 11th and 12th centuries. The distinction of strong and weak declensions was lost. The typical OE weak declension ending -n- disappeared, and so the weak declension lost its typical characteristic feature. These changes began in the 12th century. Only two endings proved stable; the ending -es of the Genitive singular (masculine and neuter) -a-stem, and the ending -as the Nominative and Accusative plural masculine a-stems. The Genitive plural also took ending -es. In the course of the 12th century the es-ending spread to all nouns, with very few exceptions. Thus, the noun “name” (name) got the forms: Genitive singular – names, Nominative, Genitive and Accusative plural – names, the noun “tungue” (tongue) got the forms “tunges” in the same cases. Only a few nouns were not affected by this process. These nouns were the nouns which had mutation in the Nominative and Accusative plural (men, fet, ges).

           In OE the category of number and the category of case were interwoven. In ME a radical change takes place in this respect: the expression of number is separated from that of case. So there is a great fundamental difference between the OE ending -as and the ME ending -es; while the OE -as- expressed number and case simultaneously, ME -es- expresses number alone and is not connected with any notion of case. This is an important innovation in ME.

           In the course of time the system of case endings was reduced and changed by the system of prepositions and by the structure of a sentence in ME. These process took place simultaneously. It was in ME when the system of articles was formed. The articles which define nouns.


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