Degrees of comparison

Like adjectives in other languages, most OE adjectives distinguished between 3 degrees of comparison:

o Positive

o Comparative

o Superlative

The regular means used to form the comparative and the superlative from the positive were the suffixes –ra and -est/-ost*.

Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an interchange of the root vowel**.

Some adjectives had parallel sets of forms with and without a vowel interchange#.

Some adjectives built their forms of the degree of comparison suppletively##.

Means of form-building	Positive	Comparative	Superlative	NE
Suffixation*	soft	softra	softrost	soft
Suffixation plus vowel interchange**	ʒlæd lonʒ eald #(also:	ʒlædra lenʒra ieldra ealdra	ʒladost lenʒest ieldest ealdost, ealdest	glad long old
Suppletion ##	ʒōd	bettra	bet(e)st	good

The numeral. Cardinal and ordinal numerals.

In Proto-Indo-European all numerals, both cardinal and ordinal, were declined, as they derived on a very ancient stage from nouns or adjectives, originally being a declined part of speech.

Here is the list of the cardinal numerals:

1 án	20 twentig
2 twá	21 twentig ond án
3 þríe	30 þrítig
4 féower	40 féowertig
5 fíf	50 fíftig
6 six, syx, siex	60 siextig
7 seofon, syofn	70 siofontig
8 eahta	80 eahtatig
9 nigon	90 nigontig
10 tien, týn	100 hundtéontig, hund, hundred
11 endlefan	110 hundælleftig
12 twelf	120 hundtwelftig
13 þríotíene	200 tú hund
14 féowertíene	1000 þúsend
15 fíftíene...	2000 tú þúsendu

The Old English language preserves the system of declension only for three numerals.

án is declined just like a strong adjective, can be only singular, but has masculine, neuter and feminine genders. It is the source of the future indefinite article 'a, an' in Modern English. So 'a house' in fact means "one house", here -n disappeared before a consonant. When at school, many of us thought that 'an' derived from 'a' and it appeares vice versa.

twá

	m	n	f
Nom.	twegen	tú, twá	twá
Gen.	twégea, twégra	twégea, twégra	twégea, twégra
Dat.	twæ'm, twám	twæ'm, twám	twæ'm, twám
Acc.	twegen	tú, twá	twá

So the genders have differences only in nominative and accusative cases, and indirect cases (genitive and dative) have common forms for all three genders. No number can be changed for it, and originally this numeral was dual, which seems natural.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14