With masculines, it was rarely resorted to; OHG. hirti, plur. hirte, hirta, a jo-stem, became Hirt(e) — Hirten, with subsequent transition of the singular into the n-declension. Similarly, MHG. rücke, weizze (cp. Rückhalt, Weißbier = Weizbier) have added -n in the plural and then leveled it into the singular, so that the article remained the only distinguishing element between the numbers. With the o-stems Bauer, Nachbar, Staat, Zins, the transition has not been completed ('mixed declension'). — With Heide and Rabe, the transition to n-stems is only apparent; see below. Also a few neuters have added -n in the plural, namely, the jo-stems Ende, Bett (e), Hemd(e).

(b) By mutation:

-

The r-stems Vater, Mutter, Bruder, Tochter mutated their vowels, while Schwester (where mutation could not take place) added -n.

Many masculine o-stems mutated: Baum, Frosch, Fuchs, Hof (cp. Zatzighofen, name of a town), Koch, Lohn, Stuhl, Wolf; Acker, Hammer; Faden, Wagen; Mantel, Schnabel, Vogel, and many others.

In dialects, especially in South German, where the ending -e is dropt, their number is much greater: Hünd', Ärm', Täg', etc.

(c) By mutation and ending:

The root stems Nacht and Brust.

The neuter nouns that added -er to the plural, see above.

The root nouns Kuh, Gans, Laus, Magd, Nuß, Zahn, Fuß, and others had become i-stems in prehistoric times.

C. ANIMATE VERSUS INANIMATE. This element of contrast which in Slavic languages, for instance, is of considerable importance is much less noticeable in Germanic than the former two. Aside from a few isolated cases (e.g., the transition of OHG. fridu to the modified -n-class: der Friede, des Friedens, while OHG. sunu remained in its class: der Sohn, die Söhne), there is only one

group worth mentioning, namely, the masculines of the n-class; even here, however, the deciding factor was rather an element of form than of meaning: Masculine n-stems, when animate, have generally retained their type of declension: der Knabe, des Knaben, die Knaben; those that denoted things, have gone into the o-class in consequence of the leveling of the n into the nominative: der Brunne-n; see above. More than to anything else, this was probably due to the fact that with things the nominative is much rarer than the accusative (objective) case ep. 58, concerning the IE. neuter and was therefore replaced by the latter.

Many n-stems denoting living beings have dropt the -e of the nominative, especially those ending in -r, and those that were frequently used as titles, e.g., Bär, Narr, Tor, Herr, Fürst, Graf, Prinz. - A few n-stems, however, have passed over into the 'strong' declension, e.g., Herzog (cp. Herzogenbusch), Schwan (cp. Schwanengesang), Hahn (: Hahnenfeder), Schelm, Gemahl, Junker, Aar, Adler, and others; the reason for this is not entirely clear. The o-stem Held has become weak.

The n-stems Lump and Tropf show the interesting peculiarity of following the type Brunnen in their literal meaning ('rag,' 'drop'), but when used metaphorically for human beings ('scoundrel,' 'goodfor-nothing'), Lump retains its original n-declension (cp., however, Goethe's 'Nur Lumpe sind bescheiden'), while Tropf (plur. Tröpfe) follows the i-stems.

Heide and Christ were originally o-stems ending in -en (MHG. der heiden, der kristen), but have dropt the -n in the nom. sing. in analogy with Jude, Laie, Pfaffe, etc., thus going over into the n-declension.

62. Noun Formation. A. SIMPLE NOUNS. (1) Primary Nouns. - The parts of the body, the nearest relatives, native plants and animals, and the most common objects, ideas, and institutions of primitive life are generally designated by independent nouns that have little, if any, connection with other primary (underived) parts of speech. Instances are: Leib, Arm, Bein, Haupt, Hand,

Fuß, Finger, Zehe, Mund, Zahn, Ohr, Auge. Vater, Mutter, Bruder, Schwester, Sohn, Tochter, Weib. Hund, Wolf, Bär, Storch, Adler, Biene, Baum, Wald, Feld, Eiche, Buche. Haus, Stein, Holz, Balken, Beil, Dorf, Land, Meer, Kampf, Friede. Tod, Kraft, Lust, Sitte, Ehe, Adel,

(2) Derived Nouns. By far the greater number of nouns is derived, (a) from verbs, in various ways and with various vowel grades, e.g., fliegen: Flug, Fliege, Flügel; biegen: Bug, Bügel, Bucht; binden: Band, Bund, Binde, Bündel; graben: Grab, Grube, Gruft.

(b) From adjectives, chiefly abstracts in -e: Güte, Größe, Röte, Stärke.

B. NOMINAL PREFIXES. The most important nominal prefixes are the accented forms of the verbal prefixes mentioned in 57, e.g., Beifall, Beispiel; Antwort, Antlitz; Urteil, Ursache; Vorsicht, Vorsorge; Fürsorge; Mißgunst, Mißklang.

ge- is always unaccented; with nouns, it has generally collective meaning, cp. Gebirge, Gebüsch, Gehölz, Geschwister. -Be-, ent(emp-), er-, ver-, zer- are not genuine noun prefixes, but are found in many nouns that are derived from compound verbs containing these prefixes, e.g., Bedarf, Empfang, Erwerb, Verdruß, Zerfall.

The only nominal prefix that does not occur with verbs in any form is un-: Unehre, Unglück.

C. NOMINAL SUFFIXES.

Nouns of action are formed by

-er (OHG. -āri, perhaps from Lat. -arius), to denote the agent: Bäcker, Lehrer, Schneider, etc. These nouns are generally formed from verbs.

-ei (of French origin), to denote the action itself or the place of the action: Schmeichelei, Bäckerei, Fischerei.

Feminines are derived from masculine nouns by

-in (plural innen, an old -ja-stem): Königin, Gattin, Fürstin, Wölfin.

Descent (also youth, contempt, etc.) is denoted by

-ing, -ung, -ling: Karoling, Nibelung, Sprößling, Säugling, Frühling, Jüngling, Feigling, Frechling.

The diminutive suffixes are

-lein (High German) and −chen (of Low German origin): Fräulein, Vöglein, Mädchen, Veilchen.

Place, condition, circumstances are expressed by

-nis (plur. -nisse): Wildnis, Gefängnis, Finsternis, Betrübnis. -icht: Dickicht, Röhricht.

-sal, -sel: Mühsal, Schicksal, Rätsel.

-tum: Königtum, Heiligtum, Irrtum, Reichtum, Volkstum. Persons and matters are expressed collectively by

-schaft (related to schaffen): Dienerschaft, Kundschaft, Feindschaft, Wissenschaft, Landschaft, Nachbarschaft.

Abstracts are formed by

-heit (related to Gothic haidus 'manner'): Dummheit, Krankheit, Hoheit; with the adjective suffix -ig, it took the form -keit, which subsequently was transferred to nouns without -ig: Einigkeit, Fähigkeit, Tapferkeit, Aufmerksamkeit.

-ung (abstract nouns of action): Achtung, Hoffnung, Sendung.

D. NOUN COMPOSITION proper consists of the combination of a noun, as second element, with another noun, an adjective, a verb, or an adverb, as first element, e.g., Hausvater, Süßwasser, Schreibtisch, Heimweg. This is essentially a chapter of descriptive grammar. From the point of view of historical grammar it should be noted that many nouns as first elements of compounds have retained their old genitive forms, e.g., Frauenkirche, Freudenbotschaft, Schwanengesang (many such compounds have been mentioned in the preceding chapter), and that the genitive -s of masculines and neuters has been extended to many feminines, e.g., Liebesbrief, Hoffnungsschimmer, Freiheitsfreund.

The Pronoun

63. The Personal Pronoun exhibits exceedingly archaic forms, some of which are difficult to explain. The first person is characterized by the labial element m-, the second, by the dental element t- in the singular and the velar elementu (vocalic or consonantic) in the plural, the third (the so-called reflexive) by the sibilant s-.

In the accusative singular, mich, dich, sich, the final consonant of the nom. sing. ich was added to the stems *me-, *te-, *se- (with Germanic i for e in unaccented position).— The ending -r of the datives mir and dir, from IE. -s, was

probably transferred from the plural uns. - The genitives mein, dein, sein (-er was added in NHG. in imitation of the plural forms unser, euer) are adjectives, formed by means of the suffix-in- (cp. OHG. gold — guldin 'golden,' 38B; 70). The nominative ich is really a demonstrative pronoun; du is an emphatic form of address of the t-element.

The plural form uns is the root element m- with the plural sign -s: ms>ns>uns; in euch, the ch-sound of ich, mich, dich, sich is added to the u-element in the normal grade: *eu->Gc. *iu(k)>NHG. euch. —ir is formed in imitation of wir, and this latter (from *wei- and the plural sign -s) is an isolated form without any clear etymological connection.

The usual pronoun of the third person, er, sie, es, is a demonstrative coming from two different roots: *e(partly weakened to i-) forms the masculine and neuter singular and the genitive and dative cases of the feminine singular and the plurals, the remaining forms come from a root *so- (*sjo-). The endings are, in principle, the same as those of der, which see below.

64. The Demonstrative Pronouns.

(a) der, IE. *to (and *tjo-), Greek to, Lat. (is-)te, is by far the most important demonstrative pronoun of the IE. languages. Its declension, which is typical for most pronouns, is very similar to that of the nouns, but in Germanic its endings were much less subject to weakening than the nominal endings. The endings of noun and pronoun correspond as follows:

SINGULAR

Nom. der contains the s-ending of the nominative of the noun;

die is an accusative form (IE. *tjā―m, like -ām of the fem. noun) which was substituted in NHG. for the MHG. nom. diu<*tjā.