Old English Pronouns

The weak declension of adjectives

The weak declension of adjectives does not differ from that of nouns, except in the genitive plural of all the genders, which often takes the ending - ra -, taken over from the strong declension.

Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

N blaca blace blace blacan

G blacan blacan blacan blæcra

D blacan blacan blacan blacum

A blacan blace blacan blacan

OE adjectives had three degrees of comparison. The comparative degree was formed by means of the suffix -ra and the superlative degree was formed by means of the suffix -ost or -est: blæc - blæcra - blacost.

In some cases while forming the degrees of comparison adjective suffered the influence of the i-umlaut: long - lengra - lengest.

Several adjectives have suppletive forms of comparative and superlative:

3 õd - betera - betst ‘good’ lȳtel - læssa - læst ‘little’

micel - mãra - mæst ‘large’

yfel - wiersa - wierest ‘bad’

Almost of all the adjectives adverbs could be formed by adding the suffix -e: blæce. Adverbs as well as adjectives had two types of declension and were declined as adjectives.

In OE there were personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative, interrogative, definite, indefinite, negative and relative. Personal pronouns in OE had the singular, the dual and the plural forms, 4 cases and the third person singular-three genders.

Singular

1 person 2 person 3 person

Masc. Fem. Neut.

N ic ƥū hē hēo hit

G min ƥin his hire his

D mē ƥē him hire him

A mē ƥē, ƥec hine hīe hit

Dual:Plural:

1 person 2 person 1 person 2 person 3 person

N wit 3it wē 3 ē hīē, hī, hēo

G unce incer ūre ēower hiera, hyra, hyra,

hiora, heora

D unc inc ūs ēow him

A unc inc ūs ēow hīe, hī, hȳ, hēo

The demonstrative pronouns had very many forms. There existed two demonstrative pronouns sē with the meaning «тот» (that), ƥes - with the meaning «этот» (this). All of them were declined, some of them having 5 case forms:

masculine neuter feminine plural

N ƥes ƥis ƥeos ƥas

G ƥisses ƥisses ƥisse ƥissa

D ƥissum ƥissum ƥisse ƥissum, peossum

A ƥisne, ƥysne ƥis ƥas ƥas

Inst. ƥȳs, ƥis ƥȳs, ƥis - -

The interrogative pronouns: hwā (who?), hwæt (what?) have only singular forms

N hwā hwæt

G hwæs hwæs

D hwæm hwǣm

A hwone hwæt

Ins. - hwȳ, hwī

The interrogative pronouns hwilc ‘which?’ is declined as a strong adjective:

Singular Plural

Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine

N hwilc hwilc hwilcu hwilce hwilcu hwilca

G hwilces hwilces wilcre hwilcra hwilcra hwilcra

D hwilcum hwilcum hwilcre hwilcum hwilcum hwilcum

A hwilcne hwilc hwilce hwilce hwilcu hwilca

In hwilce hwilce ----

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07