The history of Old English and its development

The tribes and nations were usually of this very type, and were used always in plural: Engle (the Angles), Seaxe (the Saxons), Mierce (the Mercians), Norþymbre (the Northumbrians), Dene (the Danish)
 

N Dene
G Dena (Miercna, Seaxna)
D Denum
A Dene

                Fem.
        Sg.            Pl.
N  hyd (hide)   hýde, hýda
G  hýde           hýda
D  hýde           hýdum
A  hýd             hýde, hýda

This kind of stems included all three genders and derived from the same type of Indo-European stems, frequent also in other branches and languages of the family.

Examples: masculine - mere (a sea), mete (food), dæl (a part), giest (a guest), drync (a drink); neuter - spere (a spear); feminine - cwén (a woman), wiht (a thing).

 

     u-stems
          Masc.                       Fem.
                        Sg.
N  sunu (son)feld (field)  duru (door) hand (hand)
G  suna         felda          dura           handa
D  suna         felda          dura           handa
A  sunu         feld            duru           hand
                        Pl.
N  suna         felda          dura           handa
G  suna         felda          dura           handa
D  sunum      feldum       durum         handum
A  suna         felda          dura           handa

They can be either masculine or feminine. Here it is seen clearly how Old English lost its final -s in endings: Gothic had sunus and handus, while Old English has already sunu and hand respectively. Interesting that dropping final consonants is also a general trend of almost all Indo-European languages. Ancient tongues still keep them everywhere - Greek, Latin, Gothic, Old Prussian, Sanskrit, Old Irish; but later, no matter where a language is situated and what processes it undergoes, final consonants (namely -s, -t, often -m, -n) disappear, remaining nowadays only in the two Baltic languages and in New Greek.

Examples:  masculine - wudu (wood), medu (honey), weald (forest), sumor (a summer); fem. - nosu (a nose), flór (a floor).

The other type of nouns according to their declension was the group of Weak nouns, derived from n-nouns is Common Germanic. Their declension is simple and stable, having special endings:

      Masc.            Fem.                  Neut.
                    Sg.
N  nama (name) cwene (woman)  éage (eye)
G  naman           cwenan               éagan
D  naman           cwenan               éagan
A  naman           cwenan               éage
                    Pl.
N  naman          cwenan               éagan
G  namena        cwenena             éagena
D  namum         cwenum              éagum
A  naman          cwenan               éagan

Examples: masc. - guma (a man), wita (a wizard), steorra (a star), móna (the Moon), déma (a judge); fem. - eorþe (Earth), heorte (a heart), sunne (Sun); neut. - éare (an ear).

And now the last one which is interesting due to its special Germanic structure. I am speaking about the root-stems which according to Germanic laws of Ablaut, change the root vowel during the declension. In Modern English such words still exist, and we all know them: goose - geese, tooth - teeth, foot - feet, mouse - mice etc. At school they were a nightmare for me, now they are an Old English grammar. Besides, in Old English time they were far more numerous in the language.

           Masc.                                           Fem.
                          Sg.
N  mann      fót (foot) tóþ (tooth)  | hnutu (nut)  bóc (book)  gós (goose)  mús (mouse) burg (burg)
G  mannes   fótes       tóþes          | hnute          bóce            góse             múse            burge
D  menn      fét           téþ             | hnyte          béc              gés               mýs              byrig
A  mann      fót          tóþ             | hnutu          bók              gós               mús              burg
                          Pl.
N  menn      fét          téþ              | hnyte          béc             gés               mýs              byrig
G  manna    fóta        tóþa            | hnuta          bóca            gósa            músa             burga
D  mannum fótum     tóþum          | hnutum       bócum         gósum          músum          burgum
A  menn      fét          téþ              | hnyte          béc             gés               mýs               byrig

The general rule is the so-called i-mutation, which changes the vowel. The conversion table looks as follows and never fails - it is universally right both for verbs and nouns. The table of i-mutation changes remains above.
 
Examples: fem. - wífman (a woman), ác (an oak), gát (a goat), bróc (breeches), wlóh (seam), dung (a dungeon), furh (a furrow), sulh (a plough), grut (gruel), lús (a louse), þrul (a basket), éa (water), niht (a night),  mæ'gþ (a girl), scrúd (clothes).

There are still some other types of declension, but not too important fro understanding the general image. For example, r-stems denoted the family relatives (dohtor 'a daughter', módor 'a mother' and several others), es-stems usually meant children and cubs (cild 'a child', cealf 'a calf'). The most intriguing question that arises from the picture of the Old English declension is "How to define which words is which kind of stems?". I am sure you are always thinking of this question, the same as I thought myself when first studying Old English. The answer is "I don't know"; because of the loss of many endings all genders, all stems and therefore all nouns mixed in the language, and one has just to learn how to decline this or that word. This mixture was the decisive step of the following transfer of English to the analytic language - when endings are not used, people forget genders and cases. In any solid dictionary you will be given a noun with its gender and kind of stem. But in general, the declension is similar for all stems. One of the most stable differences of masculine and feminine is the -es (masc.) or -e in genitive singular of the Strong declension.

Now I am giving another table, the general declension system of Old English nouns. Here '-' means a zero ending.

Strong declension (a, ja, wa, у, jу, wу, i -stems).