An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press


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indefinite context.
This contrast between definite and indefinite contexts is at the core of
Old English adjective inflection. The fundamental decision in every case
is whether the adjective is definite or indefinite. This determines which
set of inflections, i.e. which declension, is used. Thus the happy man is in
Old English:
(1) se glæd guma
whereas a happy man is:
(2) glæda guma
Thus adjective declensions are quite different from noun ones.
Firstly, all adjectives – apart from a few special cases, which are mostly
explicable on syntactic grounds – decline according to both the definite
declension and the indefinite declension, as shown in (1) and (2) above.
Of the two declensions, the simpler is the definite declension, which
closely follows the N declension discussed in Chapter 2, the principal
difference being in the genitive plural, where there is, as we have
seen elsewhere, an -r- immediately after the stem. Note also that there
are no gender distinctions in the plural. I use the adjective blinda for
exemplification:
Masculine
Neuter
Feminine
Plural
Nom.
blinda
blinde
blinde
blindan
Acc.
blindan
blinde
blindan
blindan
Gen.
blindan
blindan
blindan
blindra
Dat.
blindan
blindan
blindan
blindum
Sometimes the genitive plural shows the inflection -ena, e.g. blindena.
The definite declension’s closeness to the N declension makes it quite
MORE NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES
33
02 pages 001-166 29/1/03 16:09 Page 33


easy to follow, but the task is harder for the indefinite declension. There
are two reasons for this. Firstly, as might be expected, just as the definite
declension follows the N declension, so the indefinite declension follows
the three general declensions. Therefore, there are rather more different
declensional endings to cope with. Secondly, there is a further compli-
cation in that the endings used in the definite declension are sometimes
quite different from those used in their apparent nominal counterparts.
Furthermore, since each of the three nominal declensions has its own
endings in the plural as well as the singular, so the indefinite adjective
declension shows gender distinctions not only in the singular but also
in the plural. The overall result is as follows, again using blind (note,
by the way, that just as I used the nominative masculine singular form
blinda as the citation form for the definite declension, now I use the
corresponding indefinite citation form):
Singular
Masculine
Neuter
Feminine
Nom.
blind
blind
blind
Acc.
blindne
blind
blinde
Gen.
blindes
blindes
blindre
Dat.
blindum
blindum
blindre
Instr.
blinde
blinde
blindre
Plural
Nom.
blinde
blind
blinda
Acc.
blinde
blind
blinda
Gen.
blindra
blindra
blindra
Dat.
blindum
blindum
blindum
It may be obvious that we have to make a series of remarks about this
paradigm, for it inadequately represents the full state of affairs as it
stands. Most obviously, you will have noticed that in the masculine and
neuter singular, and only there, we find a separate instrumental inflec-
tion, as was seen in the demonstrative. The other point which we should
note immediately is what happens if the adjective is short-stemmed,
rather than long-stemmed as is the case with blind. The long-stemmed
adjectives are, despite some differences, fundamentally allied to the
corresponding general declensions. Therefore, just as the feminine noun

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