25.11.2008.

Adjectives
OE adjectives are marked for: - gender (they modify nouns of 3 genders being in concord with a noun), - number (singular and plural) and - case (4 cases-all cases for all genders are the same in plural in weak declension). Adjectival declension consists of two declensions: - WEAK (nominal) whose forms mainly coincide with the ones of weak (-an) declension of nouns - STRONG (pronominal) whose forms mainly coincide with those of pronouns STRONG DECLENSION
MASCULINE: SINGULAR: PLURAL

OE GD, adj. > MnE GOOD

N. G. D. A.
FEMINE:

GD GD ES GD UM GD NE
SINGULAR:

GD GD GD GD

E RA UM -E

PLURAL

N. G. D. A.
NEUTER:

GD GD RE GD RE GD E
SINGULAR:

GD GD GD GD

A / E RA A(svuda je gdUM ali kod debila je ovako) A / E

PLURAL:

N. G. D. A.

GD GD ES GD UM GD

GD GD RA GD -UM GD OE GD, adj. > MnE GOOD

FEMINE: NEUTER:

WEAK DECLENSION
SINGULAR: MASCULINE:

N. G. D. A.

GD GD GD GD

A AN AN AN

N. G. D. A.

GD GD GD GD

E AN AN AN

N. G. D. A.

GD GD GD GD

E AN AN E

PLURAL ALL GENDERS:

N. G. D.

GD AN GD RA / ENA GD UM

A. GD AN Most adjectives can be declined after both of these declensions, depending on the syntactic function of the adjective, the degree of comparison and the noun determiners. The adjective is declined after the pattern of the strong declension when used predicatively and attributively without any determiners (ADJ + noun = Det + H). The adjective is declined after the pattern of the weak declension when it is preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the genitive case of personal pronouns ( t weste land = that waste land ) or when the adjective is a part of a direct address (u lofa dryhten = thou dear Lord ), as well as the adjectives in the comparative and superlative degrees. Generally, adjectives are declined after the pattern of the strong declension when it refers to INDEFINITENESS, while it follows the pattern of the weak declension when it refers to DEFINITENESS. For this reason, the weak forms are used with the demonstrative pronoun: So gde talu (=the good tale) weak declension, feminine, nominative singular The indefinite article was very rarely used N (=one) OE - n > ME oon, one /:n/ an In OE indefinite article had only one form and two functions, while in ME it had two forms. Numeral N playing a role of indefinite article had a highly irregular declension. When this happens, the structure is either disappearing or developing, and in this case it was the latter. Sg. N. G. D. A. / RA -UM / N. G. D. A. Pl. / -RE / /

THE COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES

Comparative RA > MnE ER Superlative -OST > MnE EST Purely PHONOLOGICAL CHANGES!

heard + -RA heardra heard + -OST heardost Many adjectives are compared in this way with no irregularities: eadig (=happy), earm (=poor), fgen (=glad), grimm (=grim),

lof (=dear), halig (=holy),

nytt (=useful), wd (=wide)

Adjectives ending in E drop this in comparative and superlative:

clne + -RA clnra clne + -OST clnost cne / ke:ne/ (=bold, keen), cnra, cnost Pronounced as /k/ because of its origin cne rce, rcra, rcost (=powerful) Adjectives ending in U have a change gearu gearOra gearWost (=ready) nearu nearOra nearWost (=narrow) E-mutation - In some cases, the process of forming comparative & superlative is followed by the root-vowel change and mutation of the suffix ost into est : LONG GEONG STRANG GREAT EALD FEORR HAH SCEORT LENGRA GYNGRA STRENGRA GR TRA IELDRA FYRRA HRRA SCYRTRA LENGEST GYNGEST STRENGEST GRTREST IELDEST FYRREST HRREST SCYRTEST (=long) (=young) (=strong) (=large) (=old) (=far) (=high) (=short) -U -O -W

IRREGULAR COMPARISON: GD YFEL MICEL BETTRA / BETRA WYRSA MRA MOORE MORE LS(S)A BETEST (earlier form) / BETST (classical OE) WYRST (WYREST, WIERREST) MST

LYTEL

LST (eaae MnE spelling)