UNIT SIX

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u-stems included nouns of masculine and feminine genders. Case endings of both genders coincided. The ending of the nominative and accusative singular depended on the shortness or length of the root syllable. In the nominative and accusative singular nouns with a short root syllable had the ending –u, those with a long root syllable had no ending at all.

sunu(son), hand (hand)

u-stems correspond to Latin nouns of the 4-th declension, such as fructus (fruit)

2.6.3. Consonant Stems: Weak Declension, Minor Declensions

N-stems (weak declension)

n-stems (weak declension) comprised many masculine and feminine nouns and only a few nouns of neuter gender: OE ēaʒe (eye) and OE ēare (ear). They had only two forms in the singular: one form for the nominative case and the other – for genitive, dative and accusative (homonymy of case endings). Masculine n-stems in the nominative singular ended in –a, feminine and neuter ones - in –e.

oxa(ox), ēare (ear), heorte (heart)

The element -n was originally a stem-building suffix, which has acquired a new grammatical function. Cf.

OE ox-en-a, Russian: им-ен-а, имен; сем-ен-а, сем-ян.

The ModE plural ending -en in oxen comes back to the OE -an in oxan plural. The ending –an (ModE -en) was later extended to some nouns of other declensions, e.g. children, brethren.

R-stems

r-stems include five masculine and feminine nouns denoting relationship: fæder (father), brōþor (brother), mōdor (mother), dohtor (daughter), sweostor (sister). The dative case singular of the nouns brōþor, mōdor, dohtor has mutation.

fæder(father), brōþor(brother)

mōdor(mother), dohtor (daughter,) sweostor (sister)

r-stems correspond to the Russian nouns мать, дочь and to the Latin nouns of the 3-rd declension: pater, māter; r-stems are probably the only stems that have survived in ModE.

Es-stems

Es-stems comprised nouns of the neuter gender, though this [s] had long changed into [r] due to rhotacism. In the singular they were declined like neuter a-stems, but in the plural they had a specific inflection, not found outside that group.

lamb(lamb), cealf (calf), cild(child)

Note. «Cild» had also an uninflected Nom. Acc. Pl. «cild». In ME «cildru» changed into «childre» and acquired an additional plural ending by analogy with the n-stem, hence children.

Later the endings of the a-stems spread to all the forms of the es-stems nouns. Es-stems correspond to the Russian es-stems nouns: небо – небecа, чудо - чудеса, слово – словеса and to Latin nouns of the 3-rd declension: genus sg – genera pl (gender), opus sg – opera pl (work).