Adjective

The Numeral

The numeral did not stand out as a separate part of speech, but was considered as an aspect of a noun. The main meaning of the numeral is number quantity. We distinguish between cardinal and ordinal numbers.

Cardinal number is a numeral expressing the number as a quantity. They are of IE origin and have parallels in other IE languages.

1. ān	8. eahte
2. twējen (twā)	9. nijon
3. þrio	10. tien (tyn)
4. feower	11. endleofan
5. fif	12. twelf
6. syx (siex)	13. þreotine
7. seofon

Numerals 13-19 were formed by adding the suffix – tine/tiene to corre­sponding numerals among the first ten.

The suffix -tij was used to form numerals like 20, 30, 40 and so on. 70, 80, 90 also took on prefix hund- (70 - hundseofontij, 100 - hundteontij), 1000-þusend.

The first three cardinal numbers (an, twejen, þreo) had forms of gender and case, cardinal numbers 4 - 19 did not decline.

Ordinal number is a numeral expressing the order in account. The first two ordinal numerals are formed by means of suppletion: one – first (fyrest), two - second (of Latin origin; the native corresponding form was oþer).

3. þridda	8. eahtoþa
4. feowerþa	9. nijoþa
5. fifta	10. teoþa
6. siexta	11. endlefta
7. seofoþa	12. twelfta

Ordinal numerals 13 - 19 added suffix - teoþa; 20 - 120 - tijoþa and could be declined weak.

The adjective belongs to the nominal system, together with the noun, the pronoun and the numeral. OE adjective was sufficiently different from the modern one. It had the greatest number of grammatical categories: case, number, gender, the category of degrees of comparison and the category of definiteness/indefiniteness.

Adjectives agreed with nouns in number, gender and case. Like nouns, adjectives had three genders and two numbers. However, the category of case differed from that of nouns: in addition to the four cases of nouns they had one more case, Instrumental. It was used when the adjective served as an attribute to a noun in the Dative case, expressing an instrumental meaning.

The category of definiteness/indefiniteness meant that any indefinite adjective referred to new, previously unknown nouns, while any definite one described particular, already known nouns. Later in the development of grammar the function of this category as delegated to the new part of speech - the article.

The adjective was a heavily inflected part of speech. Its paradigm was very complicated. Moreover, like today, in OE there existed typical endings of the adjective:

-iʒ = ig; (e.g. halig - holy; mistig - misty);

-lic; (e.g. eorþlic - earthly);

-en/in; (e.g. gylden - golden; wyllen - woolen);

-isc; (e.g. Englisc - English), This ending was mainly used with nationalities.

-full; (e.g. sorgfull -sorrowful);

-sum; (e.g, halsum - wholesome); æþelinʒʒ

-leas; (e.g. sl æ pleas -sleepless);

-weard; (e.g. hamweard - homeward);

-feald; (e.g. þriefeald -threefold);

-ihte; (e.g. þirnihte - thorny);

-ede; (e.g. micelheafdede - large-headed).

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