The strong and weak adjectival declensions

THE OLD ENGLISH

ADJECTIVE



In Old English, as in all Germanic languages,

adjectives had strong and weak inflections.
They differed from nouns in that every
adjective (with a few exceptions) was capable
of being declined both strong and weak. The
exceptions were: eall ‘all’, fea(we) ‘few’,
ġenōg ‘enough’, maniġ ‘many’, ōþer ‘other’
which were always strong.



In general adjectives may occupy of two

positions, attributive, i.e. within the NP, and
predicative after the so-called copulative
verbs. In Old English the two inflections are
found only in the attributive position. In the
predicative position, adjectives were declined
strong.

The Old English adjective –
general considerations



In strong adjectival declension, adjectives were inflected
for Gender, Case, and Number. This type of inflection will
be illustrated with cwic ‘alive’ and gōd ‘good’



SINGULAR



MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER

Nom. cwic, gōd cwic

-u

, gōd cwic, gōd

Gen. cwic

-es

gōd

-es

cwic

-re

, gōd

-re

cwic

-es

, gōd

-es

Dat. cwic

-um

, gōd

-um

cwic

-re

, gōd

-re

cwic

-um

, gōd

-um

Acc. cwic

-ne

, gōd

-ne

cwic

-e

,

gōd

-e

cwic, gōd

Intr. cwic

-e

, gōd

-e

cwic

-re

, gōd

-re

cwic

-e

, gōd

-e

Strong adjectival declension



PURAL

MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER
N.A. cwic

-e

, gōd

-e

cwic

-a

, gōd

-a

cwic

-u

, gōd

Gen. cwic

-ra

gōd

-ra

D. I. cwic

-um

gōd

-um

The paradigm of the strong adjectival declension is

based partly on the nominal partly on the pronominal
endings.

Such endings as: -u in Fem. Sg. Nom. and Neut. Pl Nom.

and Acc., -e in Fem. Acc. Sg. Masc. and Neut. Sg.
Instr., Masc. Nom. and Acc. Pl, -a in Fem. Nom. and
Acc. Pl are nominal, i.e. they are found on nouns.

Strong adjectival declension

Such endings as: -es in Masc. and Neut. Gen.

Sg., -um in Masc. and Neut. Dat. Sg. and Dat.
and Instr. all Genders Pl. –ne in Masc. Acc.
Sg., -re in Gen. and Dat. Fem. Sg., and –ra
Gen. Plural all Genders are pronominal.
Compare the following:

Strong adjectival declension

The

ending

Adjectiva

l form

Determin

er

Anaphori

c

Pronoun

Interroga

tive

- es

cwic -es

þæ - s

hi - s

hwæ - s

-um

cwic -um

þæ - m/

þa - m

hi – m /heo

- m

hwæ - m

-ne

cwin -ne

þo - ne

hi - ne

hwo - ne

-re

cwic -re

þæ - re

hi - re

--------

-ra

cwic - ra

þa - ra

hi - ra

--------



Weak adjectival declension was similar to

Weak Masculine, Weak Feminine, and Weak
Neuter declensions

SINGULAR

PLURAL

MASC. FEM. NEUT. ALL

GENDERS

Nom. cwic

-a

cwic

-e

cwic

-e

cwic

-an

Gen. cwic

-an

cwic

-an

cwic

-an

cwic

-ra

(

-ena

)

Dat. cwic

-an

cwic

-an

cwic

-an

cwic

-um

Acc. cwic

-an

cwic

-an

cwic

-e

cwic

-an

Weak adjectival declension



The form cwica is declined in the same way

as hunta or mōna, the form cwice in Fem. is
declined in the same way as tunge or sunne;
the from cwice in Neut. is declined in the
same way as eare or eaġe.



Some linguists treat them as nouns derived

from adjectives.

Weak adjectival declension



The question is: what did Old English

speakers need the double inflection for one
adjectival lexeme for? Consider the following
examples:

1. Dumb

e

hundas ne magon beorcan

Dumb (str.m.pl.N.) dogs (m.pl.N.) neg may

(pl) bark (inf)

‘Dumb dogs cannot bark’
2. Dumb hund ne mæġ beorcan
Dumb (str.m.sg.N.) dog (m.sg.N.) neg may

(sg) bark (inf)

‘A dumb dog cannot bark’

The function of the double
adjectival declension

3. Đa wildan fuglas ofer hēa bēamas hūs

ġetimbraþ

The wild (w.m.pl.N) birds (m.pl.N.) over high

(s.m.pl.Acc.)

trees (m.pl.Acc.) houses build (pl)
‘The wild birds build houses on high trees’
4. Đa gōdan cyningas sellaþ hiera agenu līf for

hiera folcum

The good (w.m.pl.N.) kings (m.pl.N.) give (pl)

their life for their people.

‘The good kings give their lives for their

nation”

The function of the double
adjectival declension



The above examples seem to point to one conclusion:
strong adjectival declension was used when the NP had
no other element which could signal such grammatical
categories as Case, Gender, and Number, e.g. determiner
or demonstrative pronoun. If such an element was
present then the adjective was inflected weak. Therefore,
it could be assumed that adjectives assumed the role of
determiners if determiners were absent from the NP. If a
determiner was present, the adjective was inflected weak
thus forming with the following noun a kind of compound.
Consider the following examples:

5. Ič hæbbe dumb

–ne

hund

6. Ič hæbbe þo

-ne

dumban hund

The function of the double
adjectival declension