The 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
N.	blinda	blinde	blinde	blindan
G.	blindan	blindan	blindan	blindra, -ena
D.	blindan	blindan	blindan	blindum
A.	blindan	blinde	blindan	blindan

Degrees of Comparision

The suffices we are used to see 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. But in the individual branches of the parent language, one of the suffixes generally became more productive than the rest. The other suffixes later were preserved in isolated forms. The only IE comparative suffix which remained productive in the Germanic languages is -is-, which became -iz-and then —ir- by Verner's law.

Beside the suffix -iz- there was also in PG a suffix -ōz- or -ōr-which did not exist in IE. This suffix is a special Germanic new formation, and arose from the comparative of adverbs. And then at a later period it became extended to adjectives.

The superlative degree was formed in the IE parent language by means of several suffixes. But in the individual branches of the parent language, one of the suffixes generally became more productive than the rest. 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-.

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.

The Germanic suffix -ōst- was a new formation like -ōz- in the comparative; -ōst, -ist regularly became -ost, -est in OE.

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

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).

Several adjectives have suppletive forms:

gōd (good)	sēlra betera	sēlest betst
yfel (bad)	wiersa	wierest
micel (large)	mārа	mæst
lӯtel (little)	læssа	læst

Occasionally, comparative and superlative adjective forms are derived from adverbs:

fear (far)	fierra	fierrest, fyrrest
nēah (near)	nēarra	nīehst, nӯhst, etc.

The comparatives are declined as strong adjectives. The superlatives rarely take the forms of the strong declension and mostly follow the weak declension.

Unit 17

The Pronoun

OE pronouns fell under the same main classes as modern pronouns: personal, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite. As for the other groups - possessive, reflexive, relative - they were not fully developed. The grammatical categories of the pronouns were either similar to those of nouns, or corresponded to those of adjectives. Some features of pronouns were peculiar to them alone.

A. Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns of the first person, ic and of the second, pu, have three numbers: singular, plural and dual. Thus wit means ‘we two’, git ‘you two’.

Like their parallels in other IE languages the pronouns of the 1^st and 2^nd person have suppletive forms. This suppletivity confirms the fact that they belong to the most ancient layer of the language. All of them decline alike.

In the old English period pronouns began to lose some of their case distinctions. The Dative case of the pronouns of the 1^st and 2^nd person was frequently used instead of the Accusative. The ponouns revealed the tendency to generalise the form of the Dative for the both cases.

As there was no dual verb form, dual pronouns agreed with plural verbs. The distinction between the dual and the plural was disappearing from the pronoun in OE [Viney, 2008].

First person
	Sg	Dual	Pl
Nom.	ic	wit	wē
Gen.	mīn	uncer	ūre, ūser
Dat.	mē	unc	ūs
Acc.	mē, mēc	unc, uncit	ūs, ūsic

Second person
	Sg	Dual	Pl
Nom.	þū	git	gē
Gen.	þin	incer	ēower
Dat.	þē	inc	ēow
Acc.	þē,þēc	inc, incit	ēow, ēowic

Notes:

• The personal pronouns of the 3^rd, having originated from the demonstrative pronouns, have many affinities with the latter. They decline in a similar way.

• The pronouns of the 3^rd person have gender distinctions in the singular. The plural forms are identical for all genders.

Third person
Singular				Plural
	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	All genders
Nom.	hē	hēo, hīo	hit	hīe, hī, hӯ, hēo
Gen.	his	hire, hi(e)re	his	hi(e)re, heora, hyra
Dat.	him	hire, hi(e)re	him	him, heom
Acc.	hine	hīe	hit	hīe, hī, hӯ, hēo

Notes:

• There is no separate genitive for it, and no third-person plural th-forms (ancestors of they, etc.). These, along with she, are later developments. There is already considerable ambiguity: the feminine singular and all plurals show extensive overlap [Hogg, 2006].

• Historically the forms they, their, and them are of Scandinavian origin (from the Viking invasions and settlement in northeastern England during the Danelaw period from the 9th to the 11th centuries).

• The third person plural form ’em is believed to be a survival of the late Old English form heom, which appears as hem in Chaucer, and has apparently lost its aspiration due to being used as an unstressed form [Freeborn, 1998].

• The oblique cases of personal pronouns in combination with the adjective ‘self’ could also serve as reflexive pronouns: him selfum (himself).

B. Possessive Pronouns

The genitive case of personal pronouns had two main applications: a) it could be an object, like other oblique cases of personal pronouns; b) it was used as an attribute, like a possessive pronoun: sunu mīn, his fæder

Though forms of the genitive case were employed as possessive pronouns, some linguists believe that they cannot be regarded as possessive pronouns proper, that is, as a separate class of pronouns. The grammatical characteristics of these forms were not homogeneous:

1) mīn, þin, ūre, ēower, and the duals uncer and incer, and the pronoun sīn (Russian свой) , took the strong adjective inflexions. That is, they were declined like adjectives to show agreement with the nouns they modified;

2) the forms of the 3^rd person, the genitives his, hi(e)re, hi(e)ra, etc. were not declined, therefore they did not agree with the nouns they modified.

С. Demonstrative Pronouns

There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: the prototype of NE that and the prototype of this. Both of them distinguished three genders in the singular and had one form for all the genders in the plural. Modern English ‘that’ descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form of ‘sē’, ‘this’ - from the neuter nominative/accusative form of ‘pes’ and ‘the’ - from the masculine nominative form, with [s] replaced analogously by the [ð] of the other forms. The feminine nominative form ‘sēo’ was probably the source of Modern English ‘she’.

The paradigm of the demonstrative pronoun ‘sē’ contains many homonymous forms. In the Nom. masc. and fem. sg. and in the Nom. pl. this pronoun has suppletive forms containing no interdental sound. Some case endings resembled those of personal pronouns, e.g. –m Dat. Masc. and Neut. sg. and in Gen. pl.; the element –r- in the Dat. and Gen. sg. and in the Dat. pl. [Rastorgueva, 2001].

During the OE period the demonstrative pronouns sē, sēo, þæt, gradually came to be used more and more in the function of the definite article. In this way ‘sē stān’ meant both ‘that stone’ and ‘the stone’. Being frequently used as noun determiners, they indicated its number, gender and case.

Note: The vowel in ‘sē’ when it was used as a demonstrative remained long, but when it was used as the article was shortened.

Singular	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Plural
Nom.	sē, se	sēo	þæt	þā
Gen.	þæs	þǣre	þæs	þāra, þǣra
Dat.	þǣm, þām	þǣre	þǣm, þām	þām, þǣm
Ace.	þone	þā	þæt	þā
Instr.	þӯ, þon	(þære)	þӯ, þon	(þǣm, þām)

Nom.	sē/ sĕ stān	þā stānas
Gen.	þæs stānes	þāra stāna
Dat.	þǣm stāne	þǣm stānum
Ace.	þone stān	þā stānas
Instr.	þӯ stāne	þǣm stānum

The demonstrative pronouns pes, pēos, pis.

Singular	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Plural
Nom.	þes	þēos	þis	þās
Gen.	þisses (þeossum)	þisse	þisses	þissa
Dat.	þǣm, þām	þisse	þissum	þissum (þeossum)
Acc.	þone	þās	þis	þās
Instr.	þӯ, þon	(þisse)	þӯs (þis)	(þissum, þeossum)