A history of the English Language

42.
Grammatical Gender.
As in Indo-European languages generally, the gender of Old English nouns is not 
dependent upon considerations of sex. Although nouns designating males are often 
masculine and those indicating females feminine, those indicating neuter objects are not 
necessarily neuter. 
St
ā
n
(stone) is masculine, 
m
ō
na
(moon) is masculine, but 
sunne
(sun) 
is feminine, as in German. In French the corresponding words have just the opposite 
genders: 
pierre
(stone) and 
lune
(moon) are feminine while 
soleil
(sun) is masculine. 
Often the gender of Old English nouns is quite illogical. Words like 
mœgden
(girl), 
w
ī
f 
(wife), 
bearn
(child, son), and 
cild
(child), which we should expect to be feminine or 
masculine, are in fact neuter, while 
w
ī
fmann
(woman) is masculine because the second 
element of the compound is masculine. The simplicity of Modern English gender has 
already been pointed out (§ 11) as one of the chief assets of the language. How so 
desirable a change was brought about will be shown later. 
43.
The Adjective.
An important feature of the Germanic languages is the development of a twofold 
declension of the adjective: one, the strong declension, used with nouns when not
12
When the stem is short the adjective ends in 
-u
in the nominative singular of the 
feminine and the nominative and accusative plural of the neuter. 
Old english 51

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accompanied by a definite article or similar word (such as a demonstrative or possessive 
pronoun), the other, the weak declension, used when the noun is preceded by such a 
word. Thus we have in Old English 
g
ō
d mann
(good man) but 
s
ē
 g
ō
da mann
(the good 
man). The forms are those of the nominative singular masculine in the strong and weak 
declensions respectively, as illustrated below.
STRONG DECLESION 
WEAK DECLENSION 
Masc.
Fem.
Neut.
Masc.
Fem.
Neut.
N. g
ō
d g
ō
d
12
g
ō
d g
ō
d-a g
ō
d-e g
ō
d-e 
G. g
ō
d-es g
ō
d-re g
ō
d-es g
ō
d-an g
ō
d-an g
ō
d-an 
D. g
ō
d-um g
ō
d-re g
ō
d-um g
ō
d-an g
ō
d-an g
ō
d-an 
A. g
ō
d-ne g
ō
d-e g
ō
d g
ō
d-an g
ō
d-an g
ō
d-e 
Singular
I. g
ō
d-e
g
ō
d-e 
N. g
ō
d-e g
ō
d-a g
ō
d
g
ō
d-an
G. g
ō
d-ra g
ō
d-ra g
ō
d-ra g
ō
d-ena 
or
g
ō
d-ra 
D. g
ō
d-um g
ō
d-um g
ō
d-um
g
ō
d-um
Plural
A. g
ō
d-e g
ō
d-a g
ō
d
g
ō
d-an
This elaboration of inflection in the Old English adjective contrasts in the most striking 
way with the complete absence of inflection from the adjective in Modern English. Such 
complexity is quite unnecessary, as the English language demonstrates every day by 
getting along without it. Its elimination has resulted in a second great advantage that 
English possesses over some other languages.