Old English Adjective Grammatical Categories The Old

Old English Adjective

Grammatical Categories The Old English adjective expressed the categories of gender (M, F, N), number (sg. and pl. ), and case (Nom, Gen, Dat, Acc. ). In Old English, as in all other Germanic languages, adjectives had strong and weak inflexions, but they differed from nouns in that: every adjective (with very few exceptions) was capable of being declined both strong and weak. Important exceptions are ōþer, and the possessives mīn, þīn, etc, which are declined strong, and the comparatives which end in –a in Nominative singular masc. , e. g. : blindra (blinder), and are declined weak.

The Use of Strong and Weak Inflections • Which form of adjective is used depends not on the type of the noun with which it is used, but on how it is used. • The strong form is used when the adjective stands alone, e. g. : ‘the man is old’ se mann is eald, or just with a noun, e. g. : ‘old men’ ealde menn. • The weak form appears when the adjective follows a demonstrative, e. g. : ‘that old man’ sē ealde mann, or a possessive pronoun, e. g. : ‘my old friend’ mīn ealda freond. • You can remember that the strong forms stand alone, while the weak forms need the support of a demonstrative or a possessive pronoun [Mitchell, 2007].

The Endings of the Strong and Weak Adjective Declension Most of the endings of the strong adjective declension were the same as those of the strong declension of nouns. Most of the endings of the weak adjective declension were identical with those of the weak noun declension. Dg

Imaginary Germanic Rules in Russian Strong Declension Им. большие красивые дома Род. больших красивых домов Дат. большим красивым домам Вин. большие красивые дома Твор. большими красивыми домами Weak Declension эти большин красивын дома этих большин красивын домов этим большим красивым домам эти большин красивын дома этими большин красивын домами Пред. о больших красивых домах этих большин красивын домах An adjective that is declined weak doesn’t reveal gender, number and case distinctions, as demonstrative and possessive pronouns are to perform this function.

The characteristic features of the strong adjective declension are: • Masculine and neuter adjectives have one more case form – Instrumental. The adjective in the Instrumental case agrees with a noun in the Dative case. • Several endings are taken from the declension of pronouns (the pronominal endings), e. g. The genitive, dative, and instrumental feminine are all –re, the accusative masculine is –ne, in the plural genetive in all three genders is -ra. These adjective endings roughly correspond to the article endings (þǣre > -re, þone > -ne þāra, þǣra > –ra, etc. ). • The rest are nominal endings. Most adjectives are declined as a-stems for the masculine and neuter genders and as ō-stems for the feminine. • In the strong declension two groups are distinguished: - short-stemmed adjectives: cwic (alive), glæd, blase, smæl, etc. - long-stemmed adjectives: gōd, brād, dēop, wīs, blind, eald, wearm, englisc, etc.

• The declension of the long-stemmed and short-stemmed adjectives is identical except in two forms. In the Fem. Nom. sg. and the Neut. Nom. /Acc, pl. the short-stemmed adjectives have the ending -u. The longstemmed adjectives have no ending (zero ending) in the same position, so we have gladu but blind. • Adjectives with æ in the root syllable change it to a before all endings beginning with a vowel: glæd - gladu.

Strong Declension of the Short-Stemmed Adjectives Singular Masc. Neut. Fem. Nom. glæd gladu (-o) Gen. glades glædre Dat. gladum glædre Acc. glædne glæd glade Inst. glade Plural Nom. glade gladu (-o) glada (-e) Gen. glædra Dat. gladum Acc. glade gladu (-o) glada (-e)

Strong Declension of the Long-Stemmed Adjectives Singular Masc. Neut. Fem. Nom. blind Gen. blindes blindre Dat. blindum blindre Acc. blindne blinde Inst. blinde Plural Nom. blinde blinda (-e) Gen. blindra Dat. blindum Acc. blinde blinda (-e)

Note: Disyllabic (двусложный) adjectives often drop their second syllable vowel before a case ending beginning with a vowel: hālig (holy) - (G) hālges - (D) hālgum - (Acc. ) hāligne, etc.

Weak Declension The weak declension of adjectives has the same endings as the weak declension of nouns, except that the adjectives generally have the strong ending -rа instead of - (e)na in the Gen. pl. Singular Masc. Neut. Fem. Plural Nom. blinda blinde blindan Gen. blindan blindrа, -ena Dat. blindan blindum Acc. blindan blinde blindan

Comparative Suffix • The suffixes in Modern English, those -er and -est in weak, weaker, the weakest, are the direct descendants of the Old English ones. At that time they sounded as -ra and -est. • The IE parent language had several suffixes by means of which the comparative degree was formed. • The only IE comparative suffix which remained productive in the Germanic languages is -is-, which became -iz- and then -ir- by Verner's law.

Superlative Suffix • The superlative degree was formed in the IE parent language by means of several suffixes. • The only superlative suffix which remained productive in the Germanic language is -to- in the combination isto-, formed by adding the original superlative suffix to- to the comparative suffix -is- (-to- + -is- = -isto-). • The simple superlative suffix -to- has been preserved in Greek, Latin, and the Germanic languages in the formation of the ordinal numerals: Goth, saihsta, OHG sehsto, OE siexta • Mod. Germ. sexte; Mod. Eng. sixth

Degrees of Comparison in Old English • The Germanic suffix -ōst- was a new formation like -ōz- in the comparative; -ōst, -ist regularly became ost, -est in OE (-ōst, -ist > -ost, -est ). • The regular means used to form the comparative and the superlative from the positive were the suffixes —ra (< -ira, -ōra) and -est/-ost. OE earm (poor) earmra earmost blæc (black) blæcra blacost

Mutation in the Comparative and Superlative Degrees In some adjectives the root vowel undergoes mutation in the comparative and superlative: eald (old) ieldra (< *ealdira) ieldest (< *ealdist) strong strengra (< *strongira) strengest (< *strongist) long lengra (< *longira) lengest (< *longist).

Suppletive Forms Several adjectives have suppletive forms: gōd (good) yfel (bad) micel (large) lӯtel (little) sēlra betera wiersa mārа læssа sēlest betst wierest mæst læst Occasionally, comparative and superlative adjective forms are derived from adverbs: fear (far) nēah (near) fierra nēarra fierrest, fyrrest nīehst, nӯhst, etc.

The comparatives are declined as strong adjectives. The superlatives mostly follow the weak declension. Can you explain why?