Маъсул муҳаррир: Филология фанлари доктори, профессор: Г. Х. Боқиева Тақризчилар

The Noun and Its Grammatical Categories
An OE word, whether noun, adjective or verb, consisted of 3 basic elements:
- the root of the word
-the stem comprising the root plus a stem-building suffix
-the inflexion or ending which is an indication of case, number, gender and tense.
Stem of the word

Root	Stem-building suffix	Case or other ending
Врем-	-ен	-и
Доч-	-ер	-и

For example, the root expresses the lexical meaning, the case inflexion expresses the relation between the thing denoted by the noun and other things said the category of number. The meaning of the stem-building suffix is more difficult to define. Perhaps, originally, stem-building suffixes were a means of classifying objects, things and phenomena into groups according to some characteristics either internal or external. For example, the stem-forming suffix - (e) r in I-E languages denoted relationship: fadar, broþar, swistar, etc. Or in Russian nouns derived by means of the stem-building suffix- ят, have one common feature: they denote a little creature, a cub: телята, жеребята, утята, etc. But with time (during the OE period), this distinction was already lost and stem-building affixes gradually merged with case endings, thus eliminating the distinction between stem-building suffixes and case endings. But in some cases, 'the stem-building suffixes can be seen. For example, in the Dat. plural of some types of substantives: