In High German the umlaut could be given only by an i which touched the root by beginning the syllable next after it; except when an i beginning a third syllable had first assimilated the i of a preceding syllable, which then gave the umlaut to the root. But in the thirteenth century umlauts came in where the i did not begin its syllable.1 143. The following is the Gothic declension, in which the dative case serves also for the ablative and instrumental: 2 gib'ōs gibō Gen. sun'aus sunivē balgʻis balg'è Dat. sun'au sun'um balg'a balgʻim gib'ai gib'ōm plural. Oiu yōs Oiu'yōs Oiu'yō | Oiu'yai | Oiuyōm sun'uns balg balgins gib'a gibōs There is a strong feminine third declension, including only five or six nouns declined like the masculine. 1 Grimm., Gram., i. p. 363-365. The strong neuter third 2 Ibid. i. p. 597–606. declension is limited to singular of fathu, which has genitive falhaus, dative fath au. The old formative ending of the stems seems to be preserved before m in the ending of the dative plural, except that i is used with stems ending in a consonant as well as with those in i, and ō corresponds to Sanskrit ā. Substantives which denote sensible objects, and which involve sex or gender in their radical idea, are principally of the fourth declension, but those which have an abstract signification are generally of the first, for they need an additional thought of substance (Def. 4), expressed by a (8), while the former involve this in their idea. 1 In the nominative har yis the a has fallen to i, and when the stem was polysyllabic or had a long syllable, ya in nominative and genitive singular was contracted to i, which is represented in Gothic by ei 2 (133). The formative vowel of the stem was generally dropped or shortened in the nominative singular. The old ending of the genitive singular -yas (9) was reduced to -is or-s. Stems ending in -u, and feminines in -i, took up the a of yas, and formed the genitive singular in -aus and -ais, corresponding to Sanskrit -ōs and -ès; but in proper names, which, owing to their concrete nature, are thought more clear of the relation, the genitive ending -is was separate from the stem; as Jesu is.3 In the dative singular these stems take up in the same way the dative ending -a, which is the sole residue of ab'ya (11) in all except the feminine -a stems, which retain the ; the a of the dative is confounded with that of the -a stems. The vocative sunau corresponds to that of Sanskrit -u stems (4). The ending of the nominative plural is -as (4), which added to -a of the stem makes -ās, and is represented by -ōs; but in the fourth declension of stems ending in a consonant it seems rather to be -yas (9), contracted to -eis; and in the third declension the y was perhaps taken up from -yas, or perhaps was inserted on account of the phonetic tendency to put i before u (133). The -a of the neuter corresponds to Latin and Greek. A similar alternative of suppositions may be made for sunive as for sunyus, there being perhaps originally ya in the ending of the genitive plural, which was absorbed by the final vowel of the stem in Sanskrit, and lengthened it (13). Is it owing to the influence of such an element that the genitive plural has ē instead of ō for Sanskrit a, except with the feminine a stems, whose a overpowered the y? (111). The m of the dative plural doubtless represents the old b of b'yas (4) The ns of the accusative plural is a remarkable preservation of the marks of case and number (62), but only in masculine nouns (14). Of neuter nouns the nominative and the accusative were the same; and in the genitive singular -yis was not contracted to eis after long roots, as if it was more independent and less closely united than in masculine nouns. 144. There is also in all the Teutonic languages a weak declension, as Grimm has called it, which has arisen from the insertion of n 1 Grimm, Gram., iii. p. 493. 2 Ibid. i. p. 599. 3 Ibid. i. p. 601. or an between the stem and the element of case or number. It is used with stems which have got a special application, as Gothic kaurn corn, used to denote a grain, bandva a sign, used to denote a concerted signal, or those which have taken up strong associations, as of action, life, movement. In either case there is a fulness and strength of idea which can never belong to a root, and in consequence of which the stem cannot so readily take up a sense of correlation, or that of individuals constituting a plurality. The thought of the substantive object as thus connected in a relation or a plurality required a distinct act of attention directed to it, and this was expressed by the pronominal element n or an. It is in fact an arthritic formation (Def. 7), such as is found in languages of the most diverse families (see V. 61, and the references there), in which a pronominal element is attached to a noun or nominal stem, and refers to it to facilitate its being taken in its present connections (147). The weak declension seems to indicate a weakness (170) of the objective part, or element of substance in the substantive idea (Def. 4), owing to a strengthening of the attributive part. 145. In the Gothic weak declension (148), n was inserted when the stem ended in ei. Otherwise an was used, the a taking the place of the final vowel of masculine stems, and being taken up by the original final vowel of feminine and neuter stems into ō, which corresponds to a. In the nominative singular n and s were dropped; but in the nominative plural n or an was inserted, as above described, between the stem and the s of plurality, and in the other cases between the stem and the element of case. In the dative plural and the accusative plural the n was absorbed by the following nasal. In the genitive singular and dative singular the original ya which belonged to the element of case (4, 9, 11) having been contracted to i, assimilated to itself the final vowel of the stem, and was afterwards dropped. But in both cases the ō and the ei of the feminine nouns resisted this change. The accusative singular has dropped its case ending in the weak declensions of all the stems, as in the strong.3 The substantive stems in -ei denote pure abstracts of adjectives, qualities thought specially as substantives.4 146. The following are the stem and case endings in the AngloSaxon declensions: 5 sing. pl. sing. pl. sing. pl. sing. pl. sing. pl. sing. pl. sing. pl. In the weak declension the nominative singular of masculine has -ɑ, of feminine and neuter -e; the other cases singular of both have -an, except accusative singular neuter -e; the plural cases of all have nominative -an, genitive -ena, dative -um, accusative -an. In the strong declension the vowels of the genitive and dative singular have all fallen to e, and those of the dative plural to u, on account of its affinity to m. In the other cases the correspondences with the old vowels and with Gothic are: The y of the Gothic stem ending is always dropped in Anglo-Saxon, but there is a trace of it in the old plural masculine second declension -eas. The s of the nominative and accusative plural feminine is dropped, having been perhaps weakened by the naturally long vowel which preceded it. The genitive plural feminine first declension -ena belongs to the weak declension (147). The accusative plural masculine first and second declension has dropped n. There are also a few -u stems of irregular declension. The nouns of the fourth declension masculine have gone over to the first and second; and those of the second feminine end in -o, which does not change in the singular. There are no third feminines. In the weak declension, Grimm conjectures that all the vowels of the endings of the feminine are long except that of the dative plural.1 This would lead to the conjecture that the masculine stem ended originally in a, and the feminine in ā; that a was closed to ē in the nominative singular; but that in the other cases except genitive and dative plural both a and a were preserved by the n which followed them, and which perhaps was strengthened by the dropping of the case ending so as to have something of the prolonged softness of the double nasal or nasalised mute (134). In the genitive plural a and a were closed to e and ē. And in the nominative and accusative singular of the neuter the a was weakened to e, the original ending having been weaker than masculine -as. 147. The endings of the Old High German declensions are on the opposite page.2 The original a is preserved in the nominative plural first and second masculine, though in Gothic it had become ; and the a of the genitive plural, which in Gothic was ē, has become ō. The y has absorbed the u in the nominative plural third declension and become i; as it has absorbed also the a of the stem ending in the second feminine and become 7, except in the dative plural, in which it is i, and in the genitive plural, in which it is dropped. In the genitive plural of the second feminine, and throughout the first feminine, the a of the stem has become ō, except in the nominative and accusative singular, in which it is a. So that the feminine declensions, with the exception 1 Grimm, Gram., i. p. 820. 2 Ibid. i. p. 611–629. sg. pl. -u -i sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl. sg. pl. -es-eō -es -yō(eo) -ō -ōnō -î -ōnō -i -yō(eō)-es -ō -es-yō (eo) -um-yu-im-a-im -ō-om-i-im-i-im Dat. -a -um-a -a -um-e -um of dative singular of first, differ from Gothic mainly in the prevalence of i. The genitive singular masculine and neuter is -es, as in AngloSaxon; though the s of the plural has been dropped both in the nominative and in the accusative. The genitive plural of first and second feminine belongs to the weak declension; and it is remarkable that this is confined to the feminine nouns, in which gender is expressed by the long final vowel of the stem. For in these the thought of the stem as feminine is strongest, and the speciality which this gives makes it less ready to be thought in correlation; and in the plural, which is less distinctly thought as object of a relation than the singular (14), they need the arthritic n in order to take up the sense of object to the strong genitive relation (144). In the third masculine i prevails more than in Gothic, having quite taken the place of u in the plural. The masculine and neuter nouns have stronger substance than the feminine nouns, and being consequently more readily thought as objects of a relation, they have an instrumental case in Old High German and Old Saxon ending in -u, which corresponds to Sanskrit -ā. It appears from the above that the fuller vocalisation of Old High German than of Gothic (137) was independent of the increased pressure of breath in uttering the consonants. For it is more probable that before this came to either Gothic or High German the latter had ā where it was the original vowel while Gothic had ō or ē, than that High German restored ā out of ō or è when it got the second access of breath. The loss of the final consonants everywhere except in the dative plural is remarkable. But some personal nouns of the first masculine retain in the accusative singular the old ending -an, 1 which corresponds with what has been observed of Sanskrit masculine nouns (14). 148. The following are the Old High German endings of the weak declension compared with the Gothic: 1 Grimm, Gram., i. p. 613. |