Noun paradigms

The disyllabic nouns ending in -el, -ol, -еn, -еr, -or, etc undergo contraction of unstressed vowels in the process of declension/suffixation; e.g. Nom fuȝol (bird) – Dat sing fuȝle, Gen fuȝles, etc.

The nouns ending in -h, lose -h in the process of declension/suffixation, while their stem vowel becomes lengthened; e.g. Nom seolh (seal (aquatic mammal)) – Dat sing séole, Gen séoles, etc

The nouns structured like héafod (head) (long stressed syllable + short unstressed syllable) are declined the same way as the n scip is: Nom, Acc pl héafodu; while those structured like e.g. wæter (water) (short stressed + short unstressed syllable) have no endings in Nom and Acc pl: wæter (same as in case of the n scéap).

-wa- stemmed nouns are represented by two versions:
(a) nouns with a vowel before the stem-forming suffix (þéow-); and
(b) nouns having a consonant before the stem-forming suffix (bearw-):

This type of declension includes the nouns originally belonging to the -u- stemmed type: winter (winter) (cf Goth wintrus), lust (desire; lust) (cf Goth lustus), wífhád (womanhood) cf Goth haidus (manner, fashion, way), etc, which transferred to -a- type, still retaining in some instances the case endings characteristic of -u- type (e.g. Dat / Instr wintra, where -a is the case ending of the -u- stemmed type).

This type of declension includes the nouns originally belonging to the -i- stemmed nouns, which transferred to -a- stemmed type: cræft (strength) (cf OHG kraft [-i-]), torr (tower) (cf OHG turri, [-i-], Lat turris).

The nouns of this type are declined practically the same way as the -ō- stemmed nouns, the only difference being the fact that they lack the ending -ena in Gen pl.

As seen from the above table, in the nouns belonging to this type (-īn/ō-), endings of the Nom case were spreading by analogy to other cases (except for Gen and Dat pl), resulting in the gradual transition of the nouns of this type virtually into the category of indeclinable words already in the OE period.

Their declension does not substantially differ from that of -a- stemmed (masc and neut) and -ō- stemmed (fem) nouns. Only a few nouns (chief the names of tribes and nations) retain the original endings of -i- stemmed type in Nom and Acc pl; e.g. Enȝle, Anȝle (Angles), Seaxe (Saxons), etc; although some of them also were influenced by the analogy with the paradigm of the -n- stemmed declension; cf for instance Gen pl Seaxna. Subsequently, this type of declension (as well as -ō- stemmed declension) was fully assimilated by other declension types.

The ending -as in Nom and Acc appears by analogy with -a- stemmed nouns.

The original endings of the -i- stemmed type were preserved in the long-stemmed version only by the above-mentioned names of tribes and nations.

dǽda in Nom and Acc appears by analogy with -o- stemmed nouns.

Short-stemmed neuter nouns retain the ending -e (←-i) in Nom and Acc sing and are declined the same way as the neuter -ja- stemmed nouns of the originally long-stemmed version.

The -i- stemmed neut nouns with long stem vowels are declined the same way as the short-stemmed nouns of the same type. The only difference is the fact that long-stemmed nouns do not have the ending -e in Nom and Acc sing.

This type of declension includes the nouns originally belonging to the -n- (consonantal) stemmed type, which in the course of time transferred to the -i- (vocalic) stemmed type as a result of the process of analogical changes, although the case-endings of the -n- stemmed type may sometimes appear in their paradigms; e.g. the declension of the noun sweȝer (mother-in-law) mainly follows the -i- stemmed type (sweȝre in oblique cases sing, etc). However, this noun may occasionally have in oblique cases sing also the ending -an (sweȝran), which is characteristic of -n- stemmed type, to which this noun originally belonged (cf Goth swaíhro [-n-]).

Only several OE nouns belonged to the -n- stemmed type. A remnant of this type of declension in Mod E is the pl ending -en in a small number of nouns, such as oxen, children, etc.

masc and fem nouns of the -n- stemmed type oft denote the doer of the action, thus being nomina agentis; e.g. déma (judge) ← deman (to judge; to deem, think); hunta (hunter) ← huntian (to hunt), etc.

The nouns of the same type módor (mother) and dohtor (daughter) are declined the same way as the n bróðor, with the exception that in Nom and Acc pl they may also have the ending -a: módra, dohtra.

-nd- stem nouns are represented in the OE by a number of nouns resulting from the substantivation of present participles; cf OE fréond (friend; relative, kinsman) (literally (lover, (one) loving)) and wk v fréon, fréoȝan (to love, like(; scyppend (creator, God) and str v scyppan, scippan (to create; to make, produce).

This type of declension includes several neut nouns, whose main distinctive feature is the fact that they consistently retain the old stem-forming suffix -r- (← *-z- ← -s-).
In Mod E, the word stemming from this type is child, pl children [← OE cildru + -en].

In Proto-Germanic (like in Gothic), this class of nouns was characterized by the addition of case endings immediately to the roots of the nouns in question. That is, nouns of this type did not have any stem-forming suffixes and had always had two-morpheme (root + case ending) structure.
The OE root-stem nouns are also characterized by vowel gradation. Consequently, the difference between their case-forms is grammatically marked both by means of case endings and the vocalization of their case and number forms.

Although the class of root-stem nouns in the OE incuded a very small number of nouns, this type of form building is the most well preserved in the Mod E: cf foot – feet, goose – geese, louse – lice, man – men, mouse – mice, tooth – teeth.