As I said in the last post, my sketch was getting to big to be called a sketch, and thus I broke it up. This addresses everything about the nominal system, including all the irregularities in the system that I could find. Hope you all enjoy.
Next up will be the verbs, and that will be a doozy. So many irregulars...
Old West Saxon Grammar Sketch: Nominal and Adjectival Morphology and Usage
Nouns
In Late Old West Saxon nous showed the three genders and two numbers as in earlier periods of the language, with several declensions for each gender. Only four cases were shown, with the old instrumental case completely defunct. There had been a number of simplifications over the course of the period (mainly minor declensions being absorbed by the more common ones, but in general the morphological complexity had been maintained to a strong extent. The masculine gender still had four major declensions, the neuter had five, as did the feminine.
Masculine
The most common masculine declension was the descendant of the earlier A-Stem declension. This not only contains the A-Stems proper, but also the members of the earlier U-Stem declension, which merged with this declension by the end of the period. In addition to the A-Stems was the descendant of the I-Stem declension, which also contained nouns that had previously belonged to the JA-Stems. Next, the older WA-Stems remained as a distinct inflection. Finally, there was the weak declension, almost unchanged during the period.
The three strong declension (A-Stem, I-Stem, and WA-Stem) are very similar in their forms. The only difference between the A-Stems and I-Stems is that I-Stems end in -e in the nominative and accusative singular. The WA-Stems are a bit more distinct, ending in -a in the nominative and accusative singulars, and having a "w" appearing between the stems and the standard endings of the A-Stems/I-Stems in forms other than the nominative/accusative singular. The endings of these nouns are as follows:
Code: Select all
+-----+-------------+-------------+-----------------+-------------+
| | A-STEM MASC | I-STEM MASC | WA-STEM MASC | WEAK MASC |
+-----+------+------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR |
+-----+------+------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| NOM | - | -as | -e | -as | -a | -was | -a | -an |
+-----+------+------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| ACC | - | -as | -e | -as | -a | -was | -an | -an |
+-----+------+------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| GEN | -es | -a | -es | -a | -wes | -wa | -an | -ina |
+-----+------+------+-------+-----+--------+--------+------+------+
| DAT | -e | -an | -e | -an | -we | -wan | -an | -an |
+-----+------+------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+The neuter declensions match up with those of the masculine, with a few modifications. First of all, the genitive plural ending for most neuter nouns has shifted from "-a" to "ina", borrowed from the weak declension. The reason for this is that the collapse of earlier inflectional /u/ and /a/ into /ə/ left original the nominative, accusative, and genitive endings identical, so the weak ending was borrowed to help keep the forms distinct.
The A-Stem declension in the neuter is also distinct from the masculine in that it has two sub-declensions to it. The first of them is used when the stem is "light" (i.e. it ends in a short vowel followed by a single consonant). The second is used when the stem is "heavy" (containing either a long vowel, a consonant cluster coda, or both). It is in this second, "heavy" sub-declension that the original "-a" genitive plural ending still remained.
The WA-Stems have experienced some reworking as well. The plural has taken the "w" associated with the other forms outside of the nominative and accusative singular, replacing what would have been the expected endings "-a" (from earlier "-u") with "-wa". It, like the first A-Stem subdeclension, has also adopted the "-ina" genitive plural ending as well.
Finally, the weak declension has continued more or less completely intact.
The neuter endings are as follows:
Code: Select all
+-----+---------------+---------------+-------------+-----------------+-------------+
| | A-STEM NEUT 1 | A-STEM NEUT 2 | I-STEM NEUT | WA-STEM NEUT | WEAK NEUT |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| NOM | - | -a | - | - | -e | -a | -a | -wa | -e | -an |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| ACC | - | -a | - | - | -e | -a | -a | -wa | -e | -an |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| GEN | -es | -ina | -es | -a | -es | -ina | -wes | -wina | -an | -ina |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+
| DAT | -e | -an | -e | -an | -e | -an | -we | -wan | -an | -an |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+--------+--------+------+------+The feminine declensions consist of the O-Stems, which contain not only the original members of this declension, but also the members of the former JO-Stem declension and the U-Stem nouns. Like the neuters, whether the stem is light or heavy affects how the O-Stems decline, with light stems having "-e" in the nominative singular (this is an analogical leveling of the nominative with singular with the non-nominative singular forms, replacing what would have been an etymological "-a" ending). Heavy stems have a null ending in the nominative singular.
The I-Stem declension has also continued into Late Old West Saxon, though it has become very similar to the O-Stems. The only difference between the two is that the nominative and accusative singular of the I-Stems is always without ending.
Like with the WA-Stems of the masculine and neuter, the WO-Stems of the feminine are characterized by a "w" preceding the inflections of the non-nominative singular, which has the ending "-a", rather than the "-e" or null ending of the O-Stems. Like with most of the neuters, the genitive plural ending "-ina" has been extended to all feminine nouns, both O-Stem and WO-Stem.
Finally, like with the masculine and neuter, the feminine weak declension has continued relatively unchanged through the period. The endings for the feminine declensions are as follows:
Code: Select all
+-----+--------------+--------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
| | O-STEM FEM 1 | O-STEM FEM 2 | I-STEM FEM | WO-STEM FEM | WEAK FEM |
+-----+------+-------+--------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR |
+-----+------+-------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| NOM | -e | -a | - | -a | - | -a | -a | -wa | -e | -an |
+-----+------+-------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| ACC | -e | -a | -e | -a | - | -a | -we | -wa | -an | -an |
+-----+------+-------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| GEN | -e | -ina | -e | -ina | -e | -ina | -we | -wina| -an | -ina |
+-----+------+-------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| DAT | -e | -an | -e | -an | -e | -an | -we | -wan | -an | -an |
+-----+------+-------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+There are a number of irregular nouns in Late Old West Saxon, most commonly irregular in how they form the plurals.
Umlaut Plurals
These are the nouns that show their pluralization by umlauting the stem vowel, like English's "foot/feet" or "man/men". There are a number of these nouns of both masculine and feminine gender. For masculine nouns, their inflection is much like that of the A-Stems, except that the plural nominative and accusative plural have no ending, but only show the characteristic vowel change. In the dative and genitive cases, the endings are the same as for regular A-Stems.
In the feminine, things are a little more complicated. The nouns in this group can take one of two forms, depending on whether the stem is light or heavy (as explained above). If the stem is heavy, then there is no inflection throughout the singular, and only the genitive and dative plurals have any ending attached to the stem. If the stem is light, however, it takes the same endings as the O-Stem feminines with light stems, in both the singular and the plural.
In both the masculine and feminine, by the end of the period the vowels have been leveled throughout the singular and plural, as opposed to earlier when the umlaut only appeared in the nominative and accusative plural and also in the dative singular. Examples of masculine and feminine umlauting plurals are as follows:
Code: Select all
+-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| | fot(m) "foot" | boc(f) "book" | hnute(f) "nut" |
| +-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| NOM | fot | fet | boc | bec | hnute | hnyta |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| ACC | fot | fet | boc | bec | hnute | hnyta |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| GEN | fotes | feta | boc | becina | hnute | hnytina |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+
| DAT | fote | fetan | boc | becan | hnute | hnytan |
+-----+-------+-------+-------+--------+--------+---------+There are a sizable number of masculine and neuter nouns with a stem vowel of short [æ] and a single consonant. In these nouns, the plural stem has [a] in place of the singular's [æ]. It should be noted that in nouns like this whose stem ended in an earlier [ɣ], that sound has become [j] in the singular, and [w] in the plural. The most noteworthy example of this would be the noun "dæg" (pronounced [dæj]), whose plural stem is "daw-".
Syncopated Stems
If a noun's stem is polysyllabic and ends in a resonant followed by a short non-high vowel, that vowel is dropped when an inflectional ending is added to the stem. Earlier in the period this dropping was lexical, with some nouns dropping the vowel, and some not dropping it. However, by the end of the period the alteration was universal. Examples of this sort of noun include the feminine "sawol", meaning "soul", with an inflected stem of "sawl-", the masculine "æcer", meaning "field", with an inflected stem of "æcr-", and "toacen", meaning "sign/token", with an inflected stem of "toacn-".
R-Plurals
A very small number of neuter nouns place an "r" between their stems and the rest of the inflections when in the plural. The only English equivalent is seen in child/children. The words in this declension include "lamb", "cælf" (calf), "eag" (egg), "cild" (child), and "speld" (splinter).
R-Stems
The nouns of relationship "fæder" (father), "modor" (mother), "dohtor" (daughter), "broþor" (brother) and "swostor" (sister) all show irregular declension. The feminine nouns show no case markings in the singular, and have a nominative/accusative plural that is identical to the singular form. The two masculine nouns in this declension have the same genitive singular ending (-es) as A-Stem nouns, but show no inflection in the dative singular. Like the with the A-Stems, the vowel preceding the "r" in the stem is dropped when an inflectional ending is added. The declension of these words is as follows:
Code: Select all
+-----+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+----------+
| | SINGULAR | PLURAL | SINGULAR | PLURAL | SINGULAR | PLURAL | SINGULAR | PLURAL | SINGULAR | PLURAL |
+-----+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+----------+
| NOM | fæder | fædras | broþor | broþras | modor | modor | dohtor | dohtor | swostor | swostor |
+-----+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+----------+
| ACC | fæder | fædras | broþor | broþras | modor | modor | dohtor | dohtor | swostor | swostor |
+-----+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+----------+
| GEN | fædres | fædra | broþres | broþra | modor | modra | dohtor | dohtra | swostor | swostra |
+-----+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+----------+
| DAT | fæder | fædran | broþor | broþran | modor | modran | dohtor | dohtran | swostor | swostran |
+-----+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------+---------+----------+----------+H-Stems
There are some nouns whose stem ends in -h, either following a vowel, [r], or [l]. When an inflection is added to these nouns, the -h is dropped, and any vowels at the beginning of the inflection are omitted, if the now h-less stem ends in a vowel. For instance, "scoh" (shoe) has the following declension:
Code: Select all
+-----+------+-------+
| | SING | PLUR |
+-----+------+-------+
| NOM | scoh | scos |
+-----+------+-------+
| ACC | scoh | scos |
+-----+------+-------+
| GEN | scos | scona |
+-----+------+-------+
| DAT | sco | scon |
+-----+------+-------+Adjectives
Adjectives in Late Old West Saxon still retain most of their forms, with the exception of the instrumental case. Adjectives inflect for the same four cases as the nouns (Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, and Dative), two numbers, three genders, and has distinct strong and weak forms.
These distinctions are also shown in three declensions, the standard A/O-Stem declension, the almost identical I-Stem declension, and the W-Stem declension. The I-Stems have a few minor differences between from the A/O-Stems, and the W-Stems are distinguished by the inclusion of a "w" between the stems and most of the inflectional endings. The only endings that don't take this are the nominative singular of all genders, and the accusative singular of the neuter. In addition to these, a few endings appear either with or without a preceding "w", depending on the text. These include the accusative singular of the masculine, and the genitive plural of all genders, and the dative and genitive singular of the feminine.
Much like with the nouns, sometimes the weight of a syllable will affect what endings an adjective takes (or doesn't take). With adjectives that are have a heavy stem syllable, and are part of the A/O-Stem declension, there will be no ending for the feminine nominative singular, and the neuter nominative and accusative plural. The endings of these verbs are summarized in the following tables, with letters in parentheses either being optional, or showing up or not showing up based on the phonetic enviroment the appear in.
A/O-Stems
Code: Select all
+-----+-------------+-------------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
| | A/O-STEM MASCULINE | A/O-STEM FEMININE | A/O-STEM NEUTER |
+ +-------------+-------------+----------------------------+-------------+-------------+
| | STRONG | WEAK | STRONG | WEAK | STRONG | WEAK |
| +------+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+-------+-----+------+------+
| | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR |
+-----+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| NOM | - | -a | -a | -an | -(e) | -a | -e | -an | - | -(a) | -e | -an |
+-----+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| ACC | -ne | -a | -an | -an | -e | -a | -an | -an | - | -(a) | -e | -an |
+-----+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| GEN | -es | -ra | -an | -ina | -(r)e | -ra | -an | -ina | -es | -ra | -an | -ina |
+-----+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| DAT | -an | -an | -an | -an | -(r)e | -an | -an | -an | -an | -an | -an | -an |
+-----+------+------+------+------+-------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+The I-Stems are almost identical to the A-Stems, only showing any difference in a few forms. First, the strong nominative masuline singular ends in -e, rather than with no ending, as does the strong neuter singular nominative and accusative. Second, the places in the A-Stems where an ending appears or doesn't appear based upon the weight of the preceding syllable (the strong neuter nominative and accusative plural, and the strong nominative singular), with the I-Stems those endings will always appear, regardless of syllable weight. The most prominent members of the I-Stem declension would be the present participles of verbs.
W-Stems
Code: Select all
+-----+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| | W-STEM MASCULINE | W-STEM FEMININE | W-STEM NEUTER |
| +-------------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------+----------------+--------------+
| | STRONG | WEAK | STRONG | WEAK | STRONG | WEAK |
| +---------+---------+------+-------+---------+---------+-------+-------+------+---------+------+-------+
| | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR | SING | PLUR |
+-----+---------+---------+------+-------+---------+---------+-------+-------+------+---------+------+-------+
| NOM | -a | -wa | -wa | -wan | -a | -wa | -we | -wan | -a | -wa | -we | -wan |
+-----+---------+---------+------+-------+---------+---------+---------------+------+---------+------+-------+
| ACC | -(w)ane | -wa | -wan | -wan | -we | -wa | -wan | -wan | -a | -wa | -we | -wan |
+-----+---------+---------+------+-------+---------+---------+-------+-------+------+---------+------+-------+
| GEN | -wes | -(w)ara | -wan | -wina | -w(ar)e | -(w)ara | -wan | -wina | -wes | -(w)ara | -wan | -wina |
+-----+---------+---------+------+-------+---------+---------+-------+-------+------+---------+------+-------+
| DAT | -wan | -wan | -wan | -wan | -w(ar)e | -wan | -wan | -wan | -wan | -wan | -wan | -wan |
+-----+---------+---------+------+-------+---------+---------+-------+-------+------+---------+------+-------+By and large, adjectives are a fairly regular class in late Old West Saxon, with only two types of irregular forms in the positive. Both of these have analogues in the nouns.
Æ/A Plurals
Like with nouns, adjectives a short [æ] in the stem in the singular show [a] in the plural forms. Earlier, the æ/a alteration varied depending on the ending. However, by the end of the period the variation had been leveled to a setup based on number, like with the nouns.
H-Stems
Also like with nouns, when an adjective ends in [h], that ending is dropped when followed by an ending. If the deletion of [h] causes the stem to end in a vowel, that vowel is dropped (again, like with the nouns). If the [x] has been absorbed into a preceding [r] or [l], devoicing it, then the [r] or [l] is voiced when followed by an inflection.
Comparative and Superlative
Like most other Germanic languages, Late Old West Saxon adjectives have inflected comparatives and superlative forms, formed with "r" in the compartive, and "st" in the superlative.
The Comparative
The comparative form of adjectives is formed by placing "r" between the stem and the inflectional ending, while with w-Stems, "ar" is placed between the stem and the ending (the "a" in the ending is the remnant of a former vocalized "w"). Both forms then take the inflections of the regular weak forms. The comparative never appears with strong inflections during this period.
The Superlative
The superlative is regularly formed by adding the suffix "-ast" between the stem and any inflectional endings. This ending is used both for regular adjectives, and w-Stems. The superlative can appear with both strong and weak endings.
Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives.
There are only really two irregularity with adjectives in the comparative and superlative; those adjectives which show umlaut in the comparative and superlative forms, and those which have suppletive comparative and superlative forms. There is also something of a "regular" irregularity in the comparatives of adjectives whose stem has a long vowel followed by two consonants. In that case, the stem vowel is shortened in the comparative form by the addition of the third consecutive consonant "r".
Umlauting Comparatives and Superlatives
First, a small number of adjectives experience umlaut of the stem vowel in the comparative and superlative (compare "eald" with its compartive base "ildra" and superlative base "ildest"). As the example shows, the comparatives of these umlauting adjectives are formed with the suffix "-est", rather than the regular "-ast". The adjectives which inflect like this are the following:
Code: Select all
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| MEANING | POSTIVE | COMPARATIVE | SUPERLATIVE |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| broad | broad | breadra | breadest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| young | giong | gingra | gingest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| old | eald | ildra | ieldest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| great | great | grietra | grietest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| far | feorr | firra | firrest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| high | heah | hierra | hiest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| long | long | lengra | lengest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| short | scort | scyrtra | scyrtest |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+Two of these ("broad", and "high") also have non-umlauted forms (broadra/broadast and hearra/heast) which appear in some text.
Suppletive Comparatives and Superlatives.
Four adjectives form there comparatives and superlatives by suppletion, rather than inflection. They are as follows:
Code: Select all
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| MEANING | POSTIVE | COMPARATIVE | SUPERLATIVE |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| good | god | bettra | betst |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| little | lytel | leassa | least |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| big | micel | moara | meast |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+
| evil | yfel | wirsa | wirst |
+---------+---------+-------------+-------------+It should also be noted that one of these, "good", has another set that appears in the comparative/superlative (selra/selest), though these forms are very rare by the end of the period.
Case Usage
Here is a (very) brief overview of how each case is used in Late Old West Saxon.
Nominative
Subject
The primary use of the nominative was as the subjective case of clauses.
Complement
When used with linking verbs like the copula, both the subject and the complement will be in the nominative case.
Vocative
The nominative was also used as the case of direct address.
Accusative
Direct Object
Most transitive verbs take the accusative as the case of their direct object.
Prepositional Object
Many prepositions govern the accusative object. For the most part, the governance is lexical, rather than semantic, with each preposition governing a case somewhat arbitrarily. However, some prepositions can govern either the accusative, or dative case, with the accusative case showing movement, and the dative case showing simply location. This has lead to a tendency in Late Old West Saxon for prepositions denoting movement to begin to migrate to governing the accusative case, and prepositions of pure location to migrate to governing the dative. This is just an incipient trend, however, and is not (yet) universal.
Adverbial Accusative
The accusative is used in some expressions to create adverbs, usually of time.
Genitive
Possession
The most common use of the genitive case is to show possession of something by another noun. This is usually limited, however, to alienable possession, rather than possession of intrinsic features, such as parts of the body.
Description
The genitive can also be used with nouns to say that the noun in question is characterized by the noun in the genitive. In English, this is typically done with the preposition "of", as in the phrase "a sign of strength". The Late Old West Saxon equivalent would be "toacen strengþe" (with strengþe being the genitive singular of the feminine "strengþ").
Partitive
The genitive is used to show the partitive. One common construction (which will become more important during the course of the language" is the use of the genitive of "æll", "ælra", with the superlative to mean "X-est of all".
With Verbal Nouns
With verbal nouns, the genitive is often used to show the subject of the verb that has been nominalized. An English example of the phenomenon would be a sentence like "I liked *your* handling of the situation."
Adverbial Genitive
Sometimes, the genitive is used to create an adverb from the noun in question. Much like with the accusative, these are used to create adverbs of time..
Dative
Indirect Object
The most common use of the dative is as an indirect object of verbs.
Direct Object
Although the accusative is the main marker of the direct object, the dative case is used with a number of verbs, such as "helpan" and "hlysnan" ("help" and "listen", respectively). Some of the English equivalents of these verbs still retain a "dative" object, for instance "listen *to me*", while others have switched to the accusative.
Possessor
When marking inalienable possession (such as with body parts and such), it is common use the dative as the case of the possessor. While uncommon in English, remnants of this construction can be seen in phrases like "I looked *him* in the eyes", meaning "I looked in his eyes". This sort of construction is much more common in Late Old West Saxon (and indeed, in Modern West Saxon as well).
Prepositional Object
As with the accusative, the dative is used with many prepositions, with a trend towards being used with prepositions denoting location, rather than movement.
Instrument
The dative is used for denoting instrumentality or accompaniment. It is at times used by itself, but more commonly with the prepositions "mid", "fram", and occasionally "þorh" to do this.
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