OLD ENGLISH PARADIGMS

The noun: General Masculine Declension: Cyning KING

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
cyning
cyning
cyninges
cyninge

Plural
cyningas
cyningas
cyninga
cyningum

stn stone, a oath, bt boat, hlf loaf, hengest horse, eling prince, feond foe
freond , friend.
The noun: General Feminine Declension: Talu TALE
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
talu
tale
tale
tale

Plural
tala
tala
tala
talum

glf glove, bt advantage, brycg bridge, eaxl shoulder, ecg edge, hwl space of time,
rd cross, sorg sorrow
The noun: General Neuter Declension: Scip SHIP
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
scip
scip
scipes
scipe

Plural
scipu
scipu
scipa
scipum

Like scip are bod command, brim sea, lim limb, gewrit writing
Like word are bn bone, bearn child, folc people, sceap sheep, sweord sword, land land

The noun: THE -AN DECLENSION Weak, Masculine: Nama NAME

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
nama
naman
naman
naman

Plural
naman
naman
namena
namum

Weak, Feminine: Tunge TONGUE

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
Tunge
Tungan
Tungan
Tungan

Plural
Tungan
Tungan
Tungena
Tungum

Weak, Neuter: Eage EYE

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
Eage
Eage
Eagan
Eagan

Plural
Eagan
Eagan
Eagena
Eagum

The noun: Irregular declensions

These minor declensions can be subdivided into three groups, classified by their way of
forming the plural: (a) -a plurals, (b) uninflected plurals, (c) mutation plurals.

(a) The -a plural declension includes the masculines: sunu SON, wudu WOOD,
the feminines: duru DOOR, nosu NOSE and hond HAND.
Hond declines like the others, except that it has an endingless nominative and accusative
singular.
Sunu SON
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
sunu
sunu
suna
suna

Plural
suna
suna
suna
sunum

(b) In general, uninflected plurals decline like the General Masculine, Feminine and Neuter
Declensions above, except that the nominative and accusative plural is the same as the
nominative and accusative singular. Of importance here are relationship nouns:
fder FATHER belongs to the General Masculine Declension (except that the dative singular
and, sometimes, the genitive singular are endingless), but masculine broor BROTHER and
feminine modor MOTHER, dohtor DAUGHTER decline according to the following paradigm:
Dohtor DAUGHTER
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
dohtor
dohtor
dohtor
dehter

Plural
dohtor
dohtor
dohtra
dohtrum

Sweostor SISTER follows the same paradigm, except that the dative singular is identical to the
nominative/accusative/genitive singular.
(c) Mutation plurals are so-called because the dative singular and some of the plural forms
change the stressed vowel of the singular form; this reflects a prehistoric OE sound-change,
known as i-mutation or i-umlaut. The details of this sound-change need not concern us
here, although something similar happens in PD German in the alternation between Apfel
APPLE and pfel APPLES. A number of these nouns remain irregular in PDE, e.g. fot FOOT, gos
GOOSE, mus MOUSE, but others, e.g. boc BOOK, freond FRIEND, have become regular. Fot
provides a useful model paradigm, although other nouns show minor deviations from this
model.

fot FOOT (masc.)

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
fot
fot
fotes
fet

Plural
fet
fet
fota
fotum

mann MAN (masc.)

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
mann
mann
mannes
menn

Plural
menn
menn
manna
mannum

boc BOOK (fem.)

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
boc
boc
bec
bec

Plural
bec
bec
boca
bocum

PRONOUNS
First person: I I
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
i
me
min
me

Plural
we
us
ure
us

Second person: u (u) You (thou)

Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Singular
u
e
in
e

Plural
ge
eow
eower
eow

Third person
Third person pronouns are distinguished not only by number and case, but also by gender.
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

Masculine
he
hine
his
him

Singular
Feminine
heo
hie
hiere
hiere

Neuter
hit
hit
his
him

Plural
All genders
hie
hie
hiera
him

Min, in, ure, eower may be declined like strong adjectives; his, hiere, hiera are indeclinable.

In OE there are also dual forms of the first and second person pronouns:
Person: First, Second: WE TWO; YOU TWO
Case
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative

WE TWO
wit
unc
uncer
unc

YOU TWO
git
inc
incer
inc

The dual pronouns are comparatively rare in OE, and died out entirely early in the ME period.