Ministry of higher and secondary special education of the republic of uzbekistan теrmez state university department of philology and teaching languages: on theme

Irregularities

Adjectives once came in many different classes just like nouns, but by Old English times, all adjectives have basically the same endings as cwic above. However, there are still a good number of differences and irregularities:

• 
  As with nouns, there are "light" adjectives which retain the inflectional ending -u (which occurs in the feminine nominative singular and neuter nominative/accusative plural), and "heavy" adjectives which have lost it. Originally -u disappeared after a heavy syllable or two light syllables, but speakers have re-added it to some adjectives where it had been lost. Namely, those with the suffixes -iġ or -līċ: bisigu sweord ("busy swords" [nom. pl. neut.]), broðorlīcu lufu ("brotherly love" [nom. sg. fem.]).^[11][10]
  

• 
  Some adjectives have -u after a heavy syllable because, when high vowel apocope occurred, they had an intervening light syllable which later disappeared. Examples include lȳtel ("little"), nom. sg. fem./nom-acc. pl. neut lȳtlu; ōðer ("other"), nom. sg. fem./nom-acc. pl. neut ōðru; and ēower ("your"), nom. sg. fem./nom-acc. pl. neut. ēowru.
  

• 
  Adjectives ending in -e all lose the -e before inflectional endings: blīðe ("happy"), nom. sg. masc. blīðne. They also all retain -u: blīðu ċildru ("happy children").^[12]
  

• 
  If an adjective ends in short æ plus a single consonant, the æ becomes a before endings beginning with a vowel: glæd ("glad"), nom. pl. masc. glade.
  

• 
  If an adjective ends in h, the h disappears before inflectional endings. This lengthens the preceding vowel or diphthong: þweorh ("crooked"), þwēorre gen. sg. fem. Also, if the h comes right after a vowel, any immediately following vowel disappears: hēah ("high"), acc. sg. masc. hēane, dat. sg. masc. hēam, nom. pl. masc. hēa.
  

• 
  If an adjective ends in -u, it changes to o before an inflectional ending beginning with a consonant: ġearu ("ready"), acc. sg. masc. ġearone, dat. sg. fem. ġearore. Before a vowel, it changes to w: nom. pl. masc. ġearwe.
  

• 
  Most adjectives ending in ġ, ċ, or sċ have hard g, c, or sc before an ending beginning with a back vowel (/ɑ/, /o/, /u/). Ġesċādlīċ ("rational"), nom. pl. fem. ġesċādlīca; mennisċ ("human"), dat. sg. neut. menniscum.
  

• 
  Many adjectives which end in an unstressed vowel plus a single consonant lose the unstressed vowel before endings beginning with vowels: lȳtel ("little"), nom. pl. fem. lȳtla.
  

2. Degree

Old English never uses the equivalents of "more" and "most" to form comparative or superlative adjectives. Instead, the equivalents of "-er" and "-est" are used (-ra and -ost, for some words -est). "More beautiful" is fæġerra, literally "beautiful-er," and "most beautiful" is fæġerost, literally "beautiful-est." ^[a] Other examples include beorht ("bright") → beorhtra ("brighter"), beorhtost ("brightest"); bearnēacen ("pregnant") → bearnēacenra ("more pregnant"), bearnēacnost ("most pregnant"); and cnihtlīċ ("boyish") → cnihtlīcra ("more boyish"), cnihtlīcost ("most boyish"). The only exception is that "more" (mā or swīðor) and "most" (mǣst or swīðost) were sometimes used with participles: swīðor ġelufod ("more loved"), swīðost ġelufod ("most loved").
A handful of words form the comparative and superlative with i-umlaut, namely eald ("old") → ieldra, ieldest; ġeong ("young") → ġingra, ġinġest; strang ("strong") → strengra, strenġest; lang ("long") → lengra, lenġest; sċort ("short") → sċyrtra, sċyrtest; and hēah ("high") → hīera, hīehst.
A few more become totally different words: gōd ("good") → betera, betst; yfel ("bad") → wiersa, wierrest; miċel ("much/a lot/big") → māra ("more/bigger"), mǣst ("most/biggest"); lȳtel ("little") → lǣssa ("less/smaller"), lǣsest ("least/smallest").