simplification of noun paradigms in eME

page menu

The current page deals with the following aspects of changes to noun paradigms in eME:

• core vs optional grammar
• the modern paradigm
• irregular plurals
• stem alternation
• OE wa- and wo_-stems
• OE a-stem nouns ending in <h>
• unchanged possessives
• strong feminine nouns

core vs optional grammar

The changes to noun paradigms which were complete by 1150 pass to both the core grammar and the optional grammar of eME. Changes to noun paradigms which were underway in early Middle English pass to the core grammar but not to the optional grammar. For a detailed discussion, see Normalisation 3: grammar.

The core grammar, which has fewer anomalies and exceptions, is aimed at the beginner. This is the grammar that appears in Audrey and the attercop, book 1 of Englisc buten taeres (the first 800 words). The optional grammar, which inherits more of OE's anomalies and exceptions, appears in normalised versions of OE and ME texts, and in the weblog of this site.

"the modern paradigm"

As Henry Alexander remarked in 'The Story of Our Language' (p.90): "Of the many types of nouns in OE, very few are left in ME, and in those that surive the number of forms is scarcely greater than today." Burrow and Turville-Petre in 'A Book of Middle English' (p.23) point out that "this diversity of forms was simplified from an early date in northern and eastern parts of the country. In the mid-twelfth century, The Peterborough Chronicle has what is essentially the modern paradigm":

"After prepositions the noun in the singular sometimes has the dative -e, but is as often uninflected" (my emphasis).

All OE noun declensions have fused into one. This single essentially modern paradigm applies to the vast majority of nouns in eME, regardless of OE provenance.

back to top

irregular plurals

The irregular plurals used in this site are those found in East Midland texts¹ - the Peterborough Chronicle (PC2), Ormulum Homily (Orm), Cloud Of Unknowing (Clo), Sir Orfeo (SO), Chaucer² (Ch), as well as ModE.

ModE has a small number of irregular plurals which aren't formed by adding -(e)s: mice, lice, geese, feet, teeth, men, oxen, children, brethren, sheep, deer.

eME has these same irregular plurals, as well as a few more, which are highlighted in the table below. There are four types of irregular plurals in eME, the first three of which are still found in ModE:

1. plurals with internal vowel change;
2. plurals in -(e)n;
3. no plural ending (i.e. unchanged);
4. plurals in -re;

notes

1. Lmn (a West Midland text) had the irregular plural word - word;
2. Chaucer's plural forms in -(e)n are ignored where both OE and ModE have -(e)s, e.g. shoon for eME scho_s (OE sco_s, ModE shoes);
3. an alternative form to OE g`efa_ was fah, with plural fa_; Lmn had i-fa, i-fo and fo for ModE foe while Sir Orfeo had fo and Ch had fo(o);
4. The eME equivalent of ModE brothers/brethren is an interesting case. OE had two plural forms - an unchanged bro_d`er and less often - bro_d`ra. This should give bro_t`er and brot`re in eME. But Chaucer has brethren (and brethehed for ModE brotherhood). Possibly there were several competing forms in eME - bro_t`er, brot`re(n), bret`re(n).
5. in fact most units of measure for time or space were singular in Ch;
6. also acc/gen/dat sg; a weak noun borrowed from Latin in which the nominative case is leo and genitive - leonis; an alternative with regular possessive and plural ending -es, is the additional eME form lion, introduced early from Anglo-Norman and found in Lmn, AW, SO and Ch;

See also the section on nouns in the optional grammar.

back to top

wa- and wo_-stems

neuter (and masculine) wa-stems

There are two main types of wa-stems in OE. The first group has an ending in -u for nom/acc singular and plural and an ending in -w~ for all other cases. All but one are neuter. Masculine bearu is similar but has the expected nom/acc plural forms (with -w~):

Neuter nouns like melu melwes (meal/flour) include: bealu bealwes (evil), smeoru smeorwes (fat), searu searwes (device) and teoru teorwes (tar). The lone masculine noun of its type is bearu bearwes (grove).

The second group, again mainly neuter nouns, has a dual stem with alternation of vowel length: -e_o (or -e_a) in nom/acc singular and plural, and -eow~ (or -eaw~) in all other cases. Masculine t`e_o(w) is similar but has the expected nom/acc plural forms (with -w~):

Neuter nouns like cne_o(w) cneowes include: hle_o(w) hleowes, tre_o(w) treowes and stre_a(w) streawes. There are very few masculine nouns with possible loss of <w> like t`e_o(w) t`eowes (servant). Clark Hall ⁴ lists all of these nouns except hle_o with a final <w>. See Wright ⁵ (pp 176-83 are available in this site at Wright on wa_- and wo_-stems) and Normalisation 3: grammar for more detail.

There are a handful of masculine wa-stems which don't lose final w and don't have alternation of vowel length: de_aw (dew), t`e_aw (custom), be_aw (gadfly) la_re_ow (teacher), la_tte_ow (leader), bri_w (pottage, porridge), g`i_w (griffin, vulture), i_w (yew) and sli_w (tench [fish]). These don't present an issue and pass as expected to eME - daew daewes, t`aew t`aewes, bri__w bri__wes, y%i__w y%i__wes etc.

feminine wo_-stems

There are two main types of wo_-stems in OE. The first group has an ending in -u for nom singular and an ending in -w~ for all other cases.

A second group is similar but has a long stem vowel and no final vowel in the nominative singular.

Nouns of the sinu sinwe (sinew) type are: beadu beadwe (battle), and sceadu sceadwe (shade). freatwe (ornaments) and geatwe (armour) have no singular form. gearu (equipment) occurs more often as gearwe (in all cases), in OE texts.

Nouns of the mae_d mae_dwe (meadow) type are: lae_s lae_swe (pasture) and blo_dlae_s ~lae_swe (blood-letting).

There are a handful of feminine wo_-stems which don't lose final w and don't have alternation of vowel length: hre_ow (repentance), sto_w (place) and tre_ow(t`) (faith). These pass to eME as hre__w hre__wes, sto__w sto__wes, tre__wt` tre__wt`es.

reflexes of wa- and wo_-stems in ModE

The reflexes of these nouns in ModE reveal a pattern. This may not be clear at first, since some have <w>, and some don't: meal, bale, smear, tar, knee, lee, tree, straw, sinew, shade/shadow, meadow (mead) arch, (leasow) obs. It is interesting to note however that none of the neuter nouns have retained <w> except straw, while all the surviving feminine nouns have a form with <w>. This is no doubt due to the fact that in OE feminine wo_-stems, only one case - nom sg is without <w>, whereas in OE neuter wa-stems, four cases are without <w> - nom/acc sg & nom/acc pl.

In ModE reflexes of the wo_-stems with alternation of vowel length, only one of the two stems has survived, with two exceptions (see below). Thus we have knee, tree, lee (refuge, shelter) and straw, but not *knew (in the sense of 'knee'), *trew, *lew or *strea.

Just two examples of the stem alternation evident in OE wa- and wo_-stems have survived to ModE - shade/shadow and mead/meadow. Note that there are subtle shades of meaning which distinguish shade from shadow, while mead is rarely used outside of poetry.

development of wa- and wo_-stems in ME

Not surprisingly, Middle English texts have considerable variation, which goes beyond the two doublets of ModE. In fact, all the ME reflexes of the wa- and wo_-stems have forms with and without <w>.

Here is a list of extracts from the MED entries for each of the OE wa- and wo_-stems cited above. East Midland and pre-1250 examples predominate:

neuter ~u/~wes

• OE bealu bealwes (evil, misfortune) > Ch bale dat, Gow 1393 bale dat bales pl, MED bale; other forms include: bal(e)wes gen and balewen pl gen/dat; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: 1250 Wooing Lord bales pl
• OE melu mel(u)wes (meal, flour) > Orm mele acc, Ch mele nom/acc/dat, MED mele; other forms include: mel melu melewe melow(e) meluwe meole, 1300 mele dat, 1425 meles pl; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: nil
• OE smeoru smer(u)wes (animal fat, grease lard) > Orm smere acc (Vd Wright p 295 t`urh takes acc), MED smere nom; other forms include: HA 1200 smere (smeru) acc (Vd Wright p 296 wit` takes acc/gen/dat) gen? smerewes gen smerewe (uw) dat, 1211 smereshill, 1325 for t`e smere acc/dat; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: 1211 smeres gen
• OE searu searwes (device) - no entries in MED;
• OE teoru teorwes (tar) - HA 1200 tyrwan dat, VH 1225 tirwan, 1296 ter dat, MED ter; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: Gen.& Ex. 1250 ter dat

masculine ~u/~wes

• OE bearu bearwes (grove) > MED berwe (baerwum, barewe, berewe, barou, baruwe); only 1 example of 15 in MED lacks <w>; pre-1250 nom/acc sg forms with <w>: 1197 barewe, 1242 berwe;

neuter ~e_o(w)/~eowes

• OE cne_o(w) cneowes (knee) > Orm cnewwe dat cnes pl, Lmn cneo nom cneowe dat, AW cneon MED kne_; other forms include: 1225 Horn knes pl, 1300 Hav knes, 1275 cne, 1300 kne; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: cnes, knes pl
• OE tre_o(w) treowes (tree) > Orm tre nom/acc/dat treowwess gen tres pl acc/dat trewwess pl dat, Lmn treo nom/acc treouwe dat treowen pl acc treo-wrekes, AW treo dat treoes gen treon pl acc, Owl tro acc/dat? trowe dat tron pl acc, SO tre acc, MED tre_; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: Orm tre dat, Orm tres pl dat, AW treo dat treoes gen
• OE hle_o(w) hleowes (shelter, refuge, lee) > AW leohe (leouwe) dat, Gaw 1390 lee dat, MED le_; also: 1325 le; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: AW leohe dat
• OE stre_a(w) streawes (straw), (stra_wberig`e alt) > AW strea acc, Ch stree/straw nom/acc stres pl, HA 1200 strewe/streuw acc, VH 1150 streaw, Wint.Ben.Rule 1225 streow, VV 1200 strawe dat, SLeg.Nich. 1300 strawes gen, 1300 Henley Hosebondrie straue dat, 1280/1294 Straumongere, 1284 Strawlove, Gow 1393 stree nom/acc stres pl, Hav 1300 stra, MED strau; pre-1250 nom/acc forms with straw: nil

masculine ~e_o(w)/~eowes

• OE t`e_o(w) t`ew~es (servant) > Orm t`e(o)ww t`ewwes gen & pl, AW t`eowe nom?, VH t`eowe nom t`eowes pl t`eowen pl acc, BH d`eowae d`eowaes pl, MED theu, NED theow; pre-1250 nom/acc forms with <w>: d`e_ow, t`eww, t`eowe

feminine ~u/~we

• OE beadu beadwe (battle) - no entries in MED;
• OE sinu sinwe (sinew) > Ch synwes pl, MED sineu; first nom sg form with <w>: 1392/1398 senewe; nom sg with <-u>: 1325 sinu; pre-1250 forms include: HA 1200 sina(n) sinum pl (dat), senwe, Lmn senuwen, AW seonewen pl (dat); later: 1387 senewes, 1425 sinewes pl; note also lOE sinewe dat; cited in MED; pre-1250 nom forms with <w>: nil
• OE sceadu scead(u)we (shade, shadow) > AW schadewe nom sg, Ch s(c)hade shad(e)we nom schadowe dat, MED shade shadwe; also: TH 1200 shadewe nom sg, 1250 Orison Lord schadwe nom sg; 1200 HA sceade dat; names: 1166 Scadewell (nom?), 1221 Scade (nom?); pre-1250 nom sg forms with <w>: schadwe, schadewe, shadewe; pre-1250 inflected forms without <w>: sceade

feminine -/~we

• OE mae_d f nom mae_d(w)e dat mae_duan/mae_d(w)um pl dat, (mae_dwa m nom, mae_dwe f nom) (meadow) > PC1 maedwe dat, Lmn medewe dat medewen pl acc, Owl mede dat, Ch me(e)de medewe nom, MED me_de me_dwe; other forms include: HA maedun pl dat, 1240 Hardemedwe (name; nom sg?), me_d mead sg me_des me_den me_dwes me_duwen pl; note that both Clark Hall ⁶ and Bosworth & Toller (B&T) ⁷ list the nom sg form mae_dwa; B&T also offers the following example under mae_d: xii aecras an westhealfe d`aere strae_te and a_n me_dwa beneot`an d`aem hlit`e (xii acres on the west side of the road, and one meadow beneath the hill); it seems the variant mae_dwa was masculine; pre-1250 nom sg forms with <w>: mae_dwa m sg, Hardemedwe?
• OE lae_s lae_swe (pasture) > Ch le(e)se dat, PC1 laeswe dat, MED lese leswe; other forms include: 1300 lesewe dat? sg, lesow laeswe sg, leses lesen leswes lesewen leswe leswa pl and the names: 1236 Smythesleswe sg?, 1251 Sumerleswe sg?, ModE obs. leasow; pre-1250 nom sg forms with <w>: Smythesleswe?

observations

What can we conclude from this? Early East Midland (Orm and PC2) examples are scarce. However Ch and Gow (East Midland c 1380) clearly indicate a preference for forms without <w>, even in the plural (and dat sg), in reflexes of neuter wa-stems. Conversely, Ch has nom sg forms with <w> in reflexes of feminine wo_-stems. This is the pattern observed in ModE - neuter wa-stems end up dropping the <w> in the possessive and plural forms while feminine wo_-stems keep the <w> and spread it to the nom sg. But this tendency is evident earlier than Ch. In fact a majority of reflexes of wa- and and wo_-stems show levelling before 1250.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, most reflexes of the wo_-stems with alternation of vowel length, still have doublets, as in OE. Nevertheless, the old paradigms with stem alternation have been joined by simpler paradigms with a single stem. Plural forms can be found with and without w. For example, Orm has both tres and trewwess pl and cnes pl, alongside forms that mirror OE. Ch has singular forms stree and straw ¹², as well as a plural stres. The question is - how best to deal with these duelling paradigms?

normalising the reflexes of wa- and wo_-stems

The key, particularly in regard to the early stages of learning a language, is to offer the simplest route. This is where principles 3 & 4 come into play. The upshot is that while OE wa- and wo_-stems have a dual stem, their reflexes in the core grammar of eME, have a single stem.

The approach is as follows:

1. we start with a noun paradigm that we would expect to exhibit stem alternation, e.g. bale bal(e)wes or scade scad(e)wes;
2. in a pre-1250 text we find a form which removes the stem alternation for either the nom sg or gen sg or pl; e.g. bal(e)wes pl > bales pl and scade nom sg > scadew/scad(e)we nom sg;
3. via principle 3 the stem levelling of one form (e.g. pl) is extended to the remaining form (e.g. gen sg) within the paradigm; so bales pl is extended to bales gen sg;
4. courtesy of principle 4, the paradigm levelling of the majority of wa- and wo- stems can be extended to the remaining few words in that group; e.g. the bale bales pattern is extended to mele meles and scadew scadewes to sinew sinewes;

Thus we have:

pre-1250 removal of stem alternation:

1. <w> absent throughout: bales pl, smeres gen, ter dat, tres pl, cnes pl, leohe dat

2. <w> in all forms: berwe/barewe nom sg, t`eww nom sg, schad(e)we nom sg, [leswe? nom sg], mae_dwa nom sg

via principle 3 - extend removal of stem alternation throughout paradigm:

bale bales, smere smeres, tere teres, barew barewes, tre__ tre__s, cne__ cne__s, le__ le__s, t`ew t`ewes, scadew scadewes, maedew maedewes, [laesew laesewes?]

via principle 4 - extend pattern of simplified paradigm to entire group:

mele meles, sinew sinewes, straw strawes, laesew laesewes

special cases - via principle 4 but without ModE reflex:

sarew sarewes, badew badewes

notes:

1. forms with <w> vary slightly; some have an epenthetic vowel (usually <e>) preceding <w> at the end of the stem while others don't - barewe vs berwe; this variation was evident in OE (e.g bearowe vs bearwe); the epenthetic vowel is very common in MED examples and is the predominant form in the eME sources: Lmn senuwen, medewe, AW seonewen, schadewe, Ch shad(e)we, schadowe, medewe;
2. it is unclear from the MED examples cited above what precise form the nom sg should take in words which retain the <w> - with or without a final <e>, e.g. scadewe or scadew?; in the end I have considered all wa-, wo- stems together as a group - nouns and adjectives; among the wa-, wo- stem adjectives, both PC2 and AW support narew strong sg and on that basis I have extended the <-ew> ending to the nom sg of wa- and wo- stem nouns which retain the <w> in eME; thus - barew, scadew, maedew, sinew, laesew, sarew, badew nom sg;
3. for the principle 4 group (above), the surviving ModE form decides whether the nom sg stem (without <w>) or the inflected stem (with <w>) is applied throughout the paradigm; see the ModE test for more detail;
4. in the absence of an additional eME form and a ModE reflex, the <w> of the OE inflected stem is applied throughout the paradigm; that is the case for the two "Special cases" above;
5. in the case of laesew, there is doubt about the only example of pre-1250 levelling, which happens to be a name; for that reason the noun is enclosed in square brackets above and shifted to the principle 4 group;
6. the core grammar has straw as the nom sg of strawes gen & pl, since the inflected stem straw is applied across the paradigm; the optional grammar on the other hand, has strae as the nom sg, inherited from OE stre_a streawes; see normalisation 5: issues for further discussion;
7. eME optional grammar contains forms derived from the standard OE forms, which display stem alternation, e.g. - cne__ tre__ nom sg with cnewe trewe dat and cnewes trewes gen/pl, strae nom sg with strawe dat and strawes gen/pl, balu nom sg with balwe dat and balwes gen/pl, sinu nom with sinwe dat and sinwes gen/pl etc;
8. in the optional grammar, the final <w> of the stem for wa- and wo_-stem nouns becomes <u> in the nom sg where <w> is preceded by a consonant; this isn't simply a carry-over from OE; it also reflects the strong sg ending in Orm's naru a wa-, wo- stem adjective;
9. the MED records only entries with <w> (or <u>) for t`ew (servant); more importantly for the optional grammar, Clark Hall lists d`e_ow as the headword and redirects d`e_o there; for that reason, the nom sg form of t`ew is identical in the core and optional grammars;
10. with one exception, all of the pre-1250 forms that are deployed under principle 3 above, also happen to be additional eME forms which emerge courtesy of principle 2 of the normalisation of eME; that exception is barew (grove) which has no modE reflex.

optional and core grammar forms compared

The observations and notes above lead to the following forms for the optional and core grammar:

1a. <w> absent throughout in core grammar:

1b. <w> absent throughout in core grammar; change in vowel length in optional grammar:

2. <w> in all forms in core grammar:

See also the closely related wa-, wo_-stem adjectives and the section on nouns in the optional grammar.

back to top

masculine ja-stems (and other anomalies)

Only OE here herig`es presents variation in the stem. This variation doesn't survive to the ME period. The MED has no entries with <y/y`/g`>. Orm, Lmn and Owl, for example, all have here dat.

The stem alternation in OE haele haelet`- has been ignored, for the simple reason that haelet` is often found in nom sg as well. Lmn has haeled` nom sg. The MED and OED both give heleth.

unchanged possessives (optional)

One of the optional features of eME grammar is that a few possessives take no <(e)s> ending. These are mainly nouns of relation, descended from OE stems in -r of the minor declension, in which a genitive marker was absent: fader nom/gen and similarly - mo__der, suster, bro__t`er, dohter. An OE feminine ō-stem of the strong declension, in which the genitive marker (along with acc & dat) was a final <e>: sa_wol sa_wle produced sa__wle nom/gen. On the other hand, lafdiy% and herte are descended from OE weak declension nouns, in which the genitive marker (along with acc & dat) was a final <an>: hlae_fdig`e hlae_fdig`an, heorte heortan.

Examples of nouns of relation with no ending for gen sg are: Orm brot`err nom/gen, Ch fader nom/gen, PC1 faeder gen, Orm moderr nom/gen and Ch modir gen. Ch also has modres gen. Other counter-examples prior to 1250 include moderes (Genesis and Exodus 1250) and faderes (Poema Morale 1175).

Examples of possessives without ending from the weak declension group are: Ch ladi lady gen and herte gen. Ch also has hertes gen as does his contemporary Gower. Orm consistently has he(o)rrtess as the genitive.

As for feminine ō-stems, Orm has both sawle gen and sawless gen.

Given that possessive endings in <(e)s> can be found for each of these groups of nouns prior to 1250, unchanged possessives are not a feature of the core eME grammar. See Normalisation: grammar for more on the application of principle 4.

See also the section on nouns in the optional grammar.

back to top

nominative form of strong feminine nouns gains a final <e> in eME

The pattern for strong feminine nouns in OE differed slightly, depending on vowel length. If the noun had a short internal vowel, like scinu, it ended in <u>. But if the noun had a long internal vowel, like glo_f, it had no final vowel. However, in all the oblique cases (accusative, genitive, dative) in the singular, there was always a final vowel - <e>, whether the noun had a long or short internal vowel.

So the various cases for OE glo_f, in the singular, ran like this:

• nom. glo_f
• acc. glo_fe
• gen. glo_fe
• dat. glo_fe

It's not surprising then that many from this group of OE nouns - i.e. strong feminine (o_-stems) with long internal vowel, turned up in Middle and Modern English with a final <e>, in nom sg. ModE glove is one example. Leave (permission) from OE le_af is another.

Some examples in Orm are lefe (laefe), lare, sawle, while from OE le_af, la_r, sa_wel, hwi_l.

While this isn't a pattern applied consistently in eME, it's common enough to warrant recognition of strong feminine (o_-stems) with long internal vowel as a group to be dealt with under principle 4, and thus to give all eME reflexes a final <e>.

Note - strong masculine and neuter nouns didn't develop this way in eME. Nouns such as sto(o)n in Chaucer and daei in the Peterborough Chronicle, never have a final <e> in the nominative singular. The decisive factor is undoubtedly the lack of final vowel in acc sg as well as nom sg in OE masculine a_-stems:

See also the section on nouns in the optional grammar.

back to top