Appendix:Middle English declension

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While nouns in Old English declined regularly, Middle English saw a rapid disintegration of noun declension. Two declensional patterns can be observed. These patterns are contingent on whether the noun's nominative singular does or does not end in a weak e. A connection appears between the Old English forms of strong masculine o (a)-stems. This can be observed in the commonality between Middle English plural -es and the Old English -as. The endings of these two forms of declension are as follows:


	singular	plural
(nominative/accusative)	] [	-(e)s
genitive	-(e)s	-(e)
dative	-(e)¹	-e(n)²

¹Optional; mostly fossilised after Early Middle English.
²Only found in Early Middle English and optional there.


	singular	plural
(nominative/accusative)	-e	-es
genitive	-es	-e
dative	-e¹	-en²

¹Optional; mostly fossilised after Early Middle English.
²Only found in Early Middle English and optional there.

External links

A Middle English Reader: Edited with Grammatical Introduction Notes, and Glossary. by Oliver Farrar Emerson, A.M., PH.D.