The OE noun system.

The categories:

1. gender: m, f, n;

2. number: sg, pl.

3. case: Nom, Dat, Gen, Acc.

Strong declension: a, o, u, i-stems;

Weak declension: n-stem

The most numerous – a-stem. N-stem reflexes the IE style: EG: имя – имена, время – времена, племя, стремя, etc.

The main peculiarities of OE:

1. Nom and Acc were coinside;

2. Dat pl ended in ‘-um’;

3. Gen pl always had ‘-a’.

The root ‘-st’ (mutated stem) – traces of i-mutation: man + I = men; foot → feet; goose→ geese.

R-stem: feder, sweaster – express family relationships.

The Dat sg forms in them reflects mutation in the root.

The OE system of declension was based on a number of distinctions:

· the stem suffixes;

· the gender;

· the phonetic structure, etc.

Changes in the noun system in ME and NE.

In ME the muscul gender became the main. the gender lost its inflections. The OE Nom, Acc, Dat cases fell together into Common case.

The Gen used to denote possession → becomes possessive case.

In ME the pl usually take –es which is the continuation of OE –as.

Process of simplification:

· changing in the structure of the word;

· fluctuation of gender. Also the principle of analogy – ability of the language to adapt a less common form to a more widely used one. Eg: черное кофе.

· Adj – an unchangeable part of speech (except for the degrees of comparison).

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
The sources of NE plural forms of the noun.	\|

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