Old English Noun

and plural; three genders: masculine (M), feminine (F) and neuter

(N); and four cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative.

of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic

structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables.
Cf. (compare): To define the type of declension of a Russian noun we are to know its gender and its ending. (К первому склонению относятся существительные женского и мужского рода с окончанием - а, -я).

Nouns denoting objects of the same kind formed a special

group with their own stem-forming suffix. But later the principle of the original classification was lost.

a distinct component part of the noun. Though the types

of nouns as a-stems, ō-stems, n-stems, etc. were distinguished, there was little in the OE forms themselves to show any traces of these stems.

Stem-forming Suffix

merged together either with the root or with the ending,

or had become an inflection itself. As a grammatical ending it had survived only in a few types of declension: n-stems had many forms ending in –an, u-stems had the inflection -u in some cases [Rastorgueva, 2001].

jō-, wō­stems (F);
i-stems (MNF);
u-stems (MF).

These are strong declensions.
.

Singular
Nom. Acc. stān dæg fiscere
Gen.

stānes dæges fisceres
Dat. stāne dæge fiscere
Plural
Nom. Acc. stānas dægas fisceras
Gen. stāna dæga fiscera
Dat. stānum dægum fiscerum

More and more nouns which originally belonged to other stems

or were borrowed from other languages joined this declension.
The inflections of the Dative plural –um and Genitive plural –a were alike in all declensions.

homonymous forms for the Nominative and Accusative plural.
The Mod E

plural marker -(e)s goes back to the OE –as in the Nominative and Accusative plural forms of Masculine a-stems. This inflection began to be added to the other Masculine stems towards the end of the OE period.
The OE Genetive singular ending –es of a-stems was a prototype of the Mod E Possessive Case marker -’s. In OE it began to spread to other Masculine and Neuter stems, but its use was limited to the singular nouns [Smirnitsky, 1998].

scip word scēāp
Gen. scipes

wordes scēāpes
Dat. scipe worde scēāpe
Plural
Nom. Acc. scipu word scēāp
Gen. scipa worda scēāpa
Dat. scipum wordum scēāpum

plural of the Nom. and Acc. cases. Instead of -as

they usually took –u for short stems, i.e. nouns with a short root-syllable, and did not add any inflection in the long-stemmed variant.

2. The homonymy of long-stemmed Neuters in the singular and plural resulted in identical singular and plural forms of some Mod E nouns: sheep (OE sceāp), deer (OE deōr), swine (OE swīn). Many of these words are the names of animals.

forms, as their endings contained traces of the elements –j-

and –w-.

Singular
Nom. Acc. here (M) (wīte (N) cneo(w)
Gen. heriges wītes cneowes
Dat. herige wīte cneowe
Plural
Nom. Acc. herigeas wīt(i)u cneo(w)
Gen. herigea wīt(e)a cneowa
Dat. herigum wīt(i)um cneowum

tale lāre sāwle
Dat. tale lāre sāwle
Acc. tale lāre sāwle
Plural
Nom. tala, -e lāra, -e sāwola, -e
Gen. tala lāra sāwla
Dat. talum

lārum sāwlum
Acc. tala, -e lāra, -e sāwola, -e

lār is a noun with a long vowel.
2. In sāwol

the unstressed vowel is omitted in the oblique cases.
ō-stems were all feminine. Practically no word of this type ends in -ō, which was lost or transformed. The paradigm of ō-stems contains many homonymous forms.

that -j –and -w- appeared in some endings.
Singular
Nom. ecg sceadu
Gen.

ecge sceadwe
Dat. ecge sceadwe
Acc. ecge sceadwe
Plural
Nom. ecga sceadwa
Gen. ecga sceadwa
Dat. ecgum sceadwum
Acc. ecga sceadwa

(u-, M) hond (u-, F)
Gen. metes

dǣd, -e suna honda
Dat. mete dǣde suna honda
Acc. mete dǣde sunu honda
Plural
Nom. meta, -as dǣde, -a suna honda
Gen. meta dǣda suna honda
Dat. metum dǣdum sunum hondum
Acc. meta dǣde , -a suna honda

i-stem, u-stem

declensions, but is irrelevant for u-stems: masc. and fem. u-stems

decline alike.
2. The length of the root-syllable is important for both stems: mete (i-, short-stemmed), sunu (u-, short-stemmed), fēld (u-, long-stemmed).

/-a, -ō, -i, -u / and the weak declension comprises

n-stems only.

Strong and Weak Declensions

in -a, e.g. nama (ModE name), guma (man), hunta (hunter),

tima (time), wita (councillor), etc.

2) all feminine nouns ending in -e, e.g. hlǣfdige (lady), tunge (tongue), sunne (sun), etc.

3)two neuter nouns ending in -e: ēāge (eye) and ēāге (ear).

tungan ēāran
Dat. huntan

tungan ēāran
Acc. huntan tungan ēāran
Plural
Nom. huntan tungan ēāran
Gen. huntena tungena ēārena
Dat huntum tungum ēārum
Acc. huntan tungan ēāran

numerous group of consonantal stems. They had only two distinct

forms in the singular: one form for the Nom. case and the other for oblique cases. In fact, n-stems had begun to lose their declensional system.
Masculine n-stems often denoted a doer of the action (nomina agentis), e.g. hunta (a hunter), dēma (a judge), bylda (a builder), cræfta (craftsman), etc [Smirnitsky, 1998].

(OE oxan), brethren and children, although the latter was an

original s-stem and only later converted to the n-stem paradigm. The n-stem inflection was added to the OE word cildru (s-stem), when the former plural marker failed to distinguish the plural form.
n-stems correspond to the Russian nouns семя, время, знамя, племя, etc [Ylysh, 1973].

masculine and feminine nouns denoting kinship.
Instability was characteristic of this

declension [Smirnitsky, 1998]. Every word of this group had some peculiarities in its paradigm. Some nouns had a mutated vowel in the Dative singular (brēþer, dehter), others dropped the second vowel in some forms (brōprum, mōdra) or employed some endings of other stems (fæderas - Nom., Acc. pl. Cf. –as in a-stems) [Rastorgueva, 2001].
r-stems correspond to the Russian nouns мать, дочь [Ylysh, 1973]. The original suffix –r can be found in the forms of oblique cases: матери, дочери, etc.

dohtor
Gen. brōþor fæder, -es mōdor

dohtor
Dat. brēþer fæder mēder dehter
Acc. brōþor fæder mōdor dohtor
Plural
Nom. brōpor fæderas mōdra ,-u dohtor, -tra
Gen. brōpra fædera mōdra dohtra
Dat. brōprum fæderum mōdrum dohtrum
Acc. brōpor fæderas mōdra ,-u dohtor, -tra

beings, baby animals: cild (child), cealf (calf), lamb (lamb), eʒ

(egg), etc [Ivanova, 2001]. The stem-suffix –s was transformed into –r by Verner’s Law (rhotacism).
es-sterms correspond to the Russian nouns небо – небеса; чудо – чудеса. [Ylysh, 1973].

Acc. cild lamb
Plural
Nom. cild, cildru

lambru
Gen. cilda, cildra lambra
Dat. cildum, cildrum lambrum
Acc. cild, cildru lambru

(present) participles; some of these show i-umlaut in Dat. sg.

and Nom./Acc. pl. Typical examples are frēond (ModE. friend), hettend (enemy), hǣlend (saviour), wealdend (ruler), āgend (owner), etc.
The (nd)-declension combines the peculiarities of the declension of a-stems and, to some extent, r-stems as they all denote persons.

hettendes
Dat. frēond, frēonde hettend, hettende

Plural
Nom., Acc. frēond hettend, -e; -as
Gen. frēonda hettendra
Dat. frēondum hettendrum

was made up of monosyllabic consonant stems, i.e. nouns in

which the old case endings were added directly to the final consonant of the root. Typical examples are man(n), fōt, tōþ, hnutu (nut), āc (oak), gōs (goose), mūs (mouse), burg (fortress, town), cū (cow), niht (night), ēа (water, river), lūs (louse), bōc (book), etc.
The paradigms for these nouns are affected by i-mutation [Mitchell, 2007].

declension has left traces in Mod E. irregular plural forms

– men, women, teeth, mice, etc. [Rastorgueva, 2001]. Most of the OE masculine examples can be recognized by thinking of the Mod E plural of the corresponding word: ‘foot’ (OE fōt), ‘man’ (OE mann), ‘tooth’ (OE tōþ). Most of the feminine nouns have become regular in Mod E: ‘book’ (OE bōc), ‘oak’ (OE āc), ‘goat’ (OE gāt), nut (OE hnutu), night (OE niht); but a few survive: goose (OE gōs), louse (OE lūs), mouse (OE mūs) [Mitchell, 2007].

Acc. mann fōt bōc mūs
Gen.

mannes fōtes bēc, bōca mӯs, mūse
Dat. menn fēt bēc mӯs
Plural
Nom., Acc. menn fēt bēc mӯs
Gen. manna fōta bōca mūsa
Dat. mannum fōtum bōcum mūsum
Note: The masculines have adopted the a-stem form of Gen., sg.; the feminines most often have an ō-stem Gen. in -e (bec/bōce).