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.
The strong adjective declension
blæc (black)
|
|
Masculine |
Neuter |
Feminine |
|
Singular |
|||
|
Nominative |
blæc |
blæc |
blacu |
|
Genitive |
blaces |
blaces |
blæcre |
|
Dative |
blacum |
blacum |
blæcre |
|
Accusative |
blæcne |
blæc |
blace |
|
Instrumental |
blace |
blace |
— |
|
Plural |
|||
|
Nominative |
blace |
blacu |
blaca |
|
Genitive |
blacra |
blacra |
blacra |
|
Dative |
blacum |
blacum |
blacum |
|
Accusative |
blace |
blacu |
blaca |
Notes:
-
There is a slight difference in declension between short-stemmed (such as glæd, smæl) and long-stemmed (such as gōd, eald) adjectives: in the feminine nominative singular and the neuter nominative or accusative plural the short-stemmed adjectives have the ending –u, while long-stemmes adjectives have a zero ending.
-
Adjectives with æ in the root syllable change it to a before all endings beginning with a vowel.
The weak adjective declension
|
|
Masculine |
Neuter |
Feminine |
|
Singular |
|||
|
Nominative |
blaca |
blace |
blace |
|
Genitive |
blacan |
blacan |
blacan |
|
Dative |
blacan |
blacan |
blacan |
|
Accusative |
blacan |
blace |
blacan |
|
Plural |
|||
|
Nominative |
blacan |
||
|
Genitive |
blæcra (blacena) |
||
|
Dative |
blacum |
||
|
Accusative |
blacan |
||
Degrees of comparison
|
Positive degree |
Comparative degree |
Superlative degree |
|
earm (poor) |
earmra |
earmost |
|
blæc (black) |
blæcra |
blacost |
Several adjectives have suppletive forms of comparative and superlative
|
Positive degree |
Comparative degree |
Superlative degree |
|
gōd (good) |
betera sēlra |
betst sēlest |
|
yfel (bad) |
wiersa |
wierest |
|
micel (large) |
māra |
mǣst |
|
lӯtel (little) |
lǣssa |
lǣst |
The comparatives are declined as strong adjectives; the superlatives rarely take the forms of the strong declension and mostly follow the weak declension.
Adjectives
Forms of the OE adjective express the categories of gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), number (sing. and plur.), and case (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and, partly, instrumental).
Every adjective can be declined according to the strong and to the weak declension. The strong declension of adjectives as a whole is a combination of substantival and pronominal forms. The pronominal forms are obviously element of the system.
The weak declension of adjectives does not differ from that of nouns, except in the genitive plural of all genders, which often takes the ending –ra. Blæcra.
The comparatives are declined as strong adjectives, the superlatives rarely take the forms of the strong declension and mostly follow the weak declension.
Earm (poor) earmra earmost
Several adjectives have suppletive forms of comparative and superlative:
Zod (good) betera bets
yfel (bad) wiersa wierest
Declension of adjectives
The paradigm of the adjective is similar to that of the noun and the pronoun, i.e. it compromises Gender, Number, and Case.
The grammatical category of case was built up by five forms: the Nominative, the Accusative, the Dative, the Genitive and the Instrumental.
There were two ways of declining adjectives – the definite and the indefinite declension. The adjective followed the definite declension mainly if the noun if modified had another attribute – a demonstrative pronoun, and they were declined as indefinite otherwise.
The grammatical suffixes – forms of cases mainly coincided with those of nouns with the stem originally ending in a vowel or -n, yet in some cases we find pronominal suffixes example, in the Genitive Plural, in Dative Singular, etc.
Declension of adjectives
|
Declension Case |
Indefinite (strong) |
Definite (weak) |
|
Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative Instrumental |
Зōd (good) Зōdes Зōdum Зōdne Зōde |
Зōda
Зōdan |
|
Nominative Genitive Dative Accusative |
Зōde Зōdra Зōdum Зōde |
Зōdan Зōdra Зōdum Зōdan |
4.2. Degrees of comparison
The adjective in Old English changed its forms not only to show the relation of the given adjective to other words in the sentence which was expressed by the gender, number and case of the adjective, but also to show the degree of the quality denoted by the adjective, i.e. the forms of the adjective in Old English could expressed degrees of comparison.
The degrees of comparison were expressed, the same as all other grammatical notions, synthetically, namely:
-
by means of suffixation:
heard – heardra – heardost (hard)
-
by means of vowel gradation plus suffixation:
eald – ieldra – ieldest (old)
-
by means of suppletive forms
Зōd – bettra – betst (good)
the first means being unquestionably the most common.
Both suffixation and the use of suppletive forms in the formation of the degrees of comparison are original means that can be traced back to Common Germanic. But the use of vowel interchange is a feature which is typical of the English language only and was acquired by the language in the pre-historic period of its development.
The origin of vowel gradation in the forms
eald – ieldra – ieldest
is a result of the process of palatal mutation which the root-vowel ea underwent under the influence of the original stem-forming suffix –i, ie.
Positive Comparative Suppletive
degree degree degree
eald ieldra ieldest
ealdira ealdist
ealdira > ieldra ealdist > ieldest
A similar case is observed with strong (strong), long (long) etc.
