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    Some Features of Old English Grammar

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    Ana Mariz Sabello Ramas
    Old English was an inflected language with five noun cases - nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental. Nouns declined based on their gender and whether they were strong or weak. There were also five cases for adjectives and determiners. The two main determiners were se, meaning the/that, and þes meaning this. Adjectives could be strong, declining based on gender and case, or weak, taking the same form as nouns when used with a determiner.

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    Some Features of Old English Grammar

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    Ana Mariz Sabello Ramas
    1K views17 pages
    Old English was an inflected language with five noun cases - nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental. Nouns declined based on their gender and whether they were strong or weak. There were also five cases for adjectives and determiners. The two main determiners were se, meaning the/that, and þes meaning this. Adjectives could be strong, declining based on gender and case, or weak, taking the same form as nouns when used with a determiner.

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    Old English was an inflected language with five noun cases - nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental. Nouns declined based on their gender and whether they were strong or weak. There were also five cases for adjectives and determiners. The two main determiners were se, meaning the/that, and þes meaning this. Adjectives could be strong, declining based on gender and case, or weak, taking the same form as nouns when used with a determiner.

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    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    1K views17 pages

    Some Features of Old English Grammar

    Uploaded by

    Ana Mariz Sabello Ramas
    Old English was an inflected language with five noun cases - nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental. Nouns declined based on their gender and whether they were strong or weak. There were also five cases for adjectives and determiners. The two main determiners were se, meaning the/that, and þes meaning this. Adjectives could be strong, declining based on gender and case, or weak, taking the same form as nouns when used with a determiner.

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    of 17

    SOME FEATURES OF OLD

    ENGLISH GRAMMAR

    ANA MARIZ SABELLO RAMAS


    OLD ENGLISH DECLENSION
    Old English is an inflected language, and as
    such
    its nouns, pronouns, adjectives & determiner
    must be declined in order to serve a
    grammatical function. A set of declined
    forms of the same word pattern is called a
    declension. As in several other
    ancient Germanic languages, there are five
    major cases.
    NOMINATIVE CASE
    The nominative case indicated the
    subject of the sentence, for
    example se cyning means 'the king'. It
    was also used for direct address.
    Adjectives in the predicate
    (qualifying a noun on the other side
    of 'to be') were also in the
    nominative.
    ACCUSATIVE CASE
    The accusative case indicated the direct
    object of the sentence, for
    example Æþelbald lufode þone
    cyning means "Æþelbald loved the king",
    where Æþelbald is the subject and the
    king is the object. Already the accusative
    had begun to merge with the nominative;
    it was never distinguished in the plural, or
    in a neuter noun.
    GENITIVE CASE

    The genitive case indicated possession,


    for example the þæs cyninges scip is "the
    ship of the king" or "the king's ship". It
    also indicated partitive nouns.
    DATIVE CASE

    The dative case indicated the indirect


    object of the sentence, for
    example hringas þæm cyninge means
    "rings for the king" or "rings to the king".
    There were also several verbs which took
    direct objects in the dative.
    INSTRUMENTAL CASE
    The instrumental case indicated an
    instrument used to achieve something, for
    example lifde sweorde, "he lived by the
    sword", wheresweorde is the instrumental
    form of sweord. During the Old English
    period, the instrumental was falling out of
    use, having largely merged with the
    dative. Only pronouns and strong
    adjectives retained separate forms for the
    instrumental.
    NOUNS
    Nounsare also categorized by
    Grammatical Gender.
    MASCULINE, FEMININE and NEUTER

    Old English nouns are divided as either:


    STRONG or WEAK
    STRONG NOUNS
    Example of the Strong Noun Declension for each Gender

    Masculine Neuter Feminine


    engel 'angel' scip 'ship' sorg 'sorrow'
    Case
    Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

    Nominati
    engel englas scip scipu sorg sorga
    ve

    Accusativ sorga/sor
    engel englas scip scipu sorge
    e ge

    Genitive engles engla scipes scipa sorge sorga

    Dative engle englum scipe scipum sorge sorgum


    WEAK NOUNS
    Example of the Weak Noun Declension for each Gender

    Masculine Neuter Feminine


    Case nama 'name' ēage 'eye' tunge 'tongue'

    Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

    Nominati
    nama naman ēage ēagan tunge tungan
    ve

    Accusati
    naman naman ēage ēagan tungan tungan
    ve

    Genitive naman namena ēagan ēagena tungan tungena

    Dative naman namum ēagan ēagum tungan tungum


    Nouns of Relationship

    Nouns
    Masculine
    of Relationship
    Masculine Feminine Feminine
    Feminine
    dohtor
    fæder 'father' brōðor 'brother' mōdor 'mother' sweostor 'sister'
    Case 'daughter'

    Singul Singul Singul Singul Singul


    Plural Plural Plural Plural Plural
    ar ar ar ar ar

    (ge)sw
    mōdra
    Nomi fæd(e) (ge)br sweost eostor,
    fæder brōðor mōdor /mōdr dohtor dohtor
    native ras ōðor or -tru,
    u
    -tra

    (ge)sw
    mōdra
    Accus fæd(e) (ge)br sweost eostor,
    fæder brōðor mōdor /mōdr dohtor dohtor
    ative ras ōðor or -tru,
    u
    -tra

    Geniti fæd(e) (ge)br sweost (ge)sw


    fæder brōðor mōdor mōdra dohtor dohtra
    ve ra ōðra or eostra

    (ge)sw
    fæderu (ge)br mōdru sweost dohtru
    Dative fæder brēðer mēder eostru dehter
    m ōðrum m or m
    m
    ADJECTIVES
    Adjectives in Old English are declined using the
    same categories as nouns: five cases (nominative,
    accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental),
    three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and
    two numbers (singular, plural). In addition, they
    can be declined either strong or weak. The weak
    forms are used in the presence of a definite or
    possessive determiner, while the strong ones are
    used in other situations. The weak forms are
    identical to those for nouns, while the strong forms
    use a combination of noun and pronoun endings.
    Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: glæd 'glad'

    Masculine Neuter Feminine


    Case
    Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

    Nominativ
    glæd glade glæd gladu gladu glade
    e

    Accusativ
    glædne glade glæd gladu glade glade
    e

    Genitive glades glædra glades glædra glædre glædra

    Dative gladum gladum gladum gladum glædre gladum

    Instrumen
    glade gladum glade gladum glædre gladum
    tal
    DETERMINERS

    Old English had two main determiners: se,


    which could function as both 'the' or 'that',
    and þes for 'this'.
    the/that

    Case Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

    Nominative se þæt sēo þā

    Accusative þone þæt þā þā

    Genitive þæs þæs þǣre þāra, þǣra

    Dative þǣm þǣm þǣre þǣm, þām

    Instrumental þȳ, þon þȳ, þon – –


    this

    Case Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

    Nominative þes þis þēos þās

    Accusative þisne þis þās þās

    Genitive þisses þisses þisse, þisre þisra

    Dative þissum þissum þisse, þisre þissum

    Instrumental þȳs þȳs – –


    SOURCES
    http://
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_decle
    nsion#Grammatical_cases
    Peter S. Baker (2003). "Pronouns". The
    Electronic Introduction to Old English.
    Oxford: Blackwell.

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