| Declensions of the Noun
The most remarkable feature of OE nouns was a system of declensions. The total number of declensions is twenty-five. The OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables.
The morphological classification of OE nouns rested upon the most ancient grouping of nouns according to the stem- suffixes. The stem-suffixes could consist of :
1) vowels (these nouns were of strong declension), here belong a-stems, ō-stems, i-stems, u-stems;
2) of consonants (weak declension) - n-stems, or of sound sequences ja-stems, wa-stems, nd- stems and root-stems (had no stem-forming suffix).
OE nouns distinguished 3 genders: Masculine, Feminine and Neuter. The division into genders was in a certain way connected with the division into stems, though there was no direct correspondence between them: some stems were represented by nouns of one particular gender: e.g. ō-stems were always Feminine, a-stems could be Masc. and Neuter,
e.g. M. chint (knight) ham (home)
N. hūs (house)
About one third of OE nouns were Masc. a-stems. Other stems embraced nouns of 2 or 3 genders.
. wa and ja stems are the elements of a-stem in some forms as their endings contained traces of the elements j and w. (The noun could end in –e which had developed from the weakened j; in some forms j is reflected as i or i.)
Declension of ja-stem (Masculine)
Sing. Plur.
Nom. ende endas
Gen. endes enda
Dat. ende endum
Acc. ende endas
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