Class 2 Nominal Inflection

CLASS 2 NOMINAL INFLECTION

2.0. Preliminaries In Gothic, there are nine parts of speech: Noun Adjective Pronoun (Article) Numeral Verb Adverb Preposition Conjunction (Interjection). Each of them can be labelled as either ‘inflected’ or ‘uninflected’, on the basis of whether they are realized in variable forms expressing a range of grammatical relations (cf. kiusan ‘chose’: kiusa, kaus, kiusands etc.) or in one and the same form (like fram ‘from’). Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs are inflected, while adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections are uninflected words. Some numerals are inflected (ains ‘one’, twai ‘two’ and *þreis ‘three’), while others are not. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals are inflected for case, which is referred to as declension. These parts of speech are called ‘nominals’ (Lat. nomina). Verbs are inflected for tense and mood (also person, number, gender etc.); their inflection is referred to as conjugation. The nomina and their inflection (declension) are the topic of this chapter.

2.1. Inflectional categories of substantives, adjectives and pronouns. Inflectional classes Nouns are inflected for case and number, and possess an inherent gender (masculine, feminine or neuter). The category of number comprises three alternative values: singular, dual and plural. Only verbs and some personal pronouns still possess separate forms to express the dual. Adjectives and adjective-like pronouns (demonstrative, possessive) agree with nouns in case, number and gender. There are five cases in Gothic: nominative, Gothic: An Introduction Belgrade Winter School in IE Linguistics accusative, vocative, genitive, and dative. In masculine a-stems, NOM.SG form takes the ending -s, while the VOC.SG has -ø. Nowhere else are the two forms distinct in Gothic. Nouns are divided into several inflectional classes (traditionally called ‘stems’, although this term is not the most convenient solution from a synchronic point of view): a-stems, o-stems, i- stems, u-stems, n-stems, nd-stems, r-stems and root nouns.

2.2. Inflection tables: The Noun a) a-declension paradigm

Masculine nouns: ‘tree’

singular plural nominative - - accusative -ø - genitive - - dative - -

Neuter nouns: ‘lie’

singular plural nominative -ø - accusative -ø - genitive - - dative - -

Recall that stems ending in a voiced fricative are subject to an alternation due to the final devoicing rule, cf. ‘loaf of bread’ (stem -) and ‘light’ (stem -):

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singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative

Note that not all of the above case forms are actually attested in the monuments!

Nouns with stem-final -j—the so-called ja-stems—require special attention. Due to various historical circumstances, these substantives display some peculiarities in the paradigm. The neuter ja-stems have a single paradigm, as illustrated by ‘(secular) kingdom, dominion’:

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative

Masculine nouns, on the other hand, have two different paradigms, depending on the weight of their stem syllable (Sievers’s Law). The differences amount to the following:

heavy stems light stems

NOM/GEN.SG - -

ACC.SG - -

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First we present the heavy pattern ( ‘end’)

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative

The light pattern is exemplified by ‘army’:

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative

b) o-stem declension

Feminine nouns. Example: ‘bird’.

singular plural nominative - - accusative - - genitive - - dative - -

The most problematic group of the jo-stem nouns are those with u : w alternation (with u occurring before j, and w before vocalic endings), as demonstrated by ‘girl’:

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singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative c) i-stems Both masculine and feminine nouns. These two take different endings in the singular. However, the plural inflection is uniform. Masculine i-stems adopted the same singular inflection as masculine a-stems, cf. ‘guest’:

singular plural nominative - - accusative -ø - genitive - - dative - -

Feminine i-stems: ‘commandment’:

singular plural nominative - - accusative -ø - genitive - - dative - - d) u-stems This unproductive type involves nouns of all three genders but there are only two neuter u- stem substantives ( ‘fortune’, ‘pile’), which differ from the regular

Gothic: An Introduction Belgrade Winter School in IE Linguistics masculine/feminine pattern only by having an s-less NOM.SG form. Their plural forms are not attested. As for the masculine and neuter u-stems, their declension goes as follows:

singular plural nominative - - - - accusative - - - - genitive - - - - dative - - - - ‘son’ is a masculine, and ‘hand’ a feminine noun.

e) n-stems

Feminine n-stems: ‘reward’, ‘sea’:

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative

Masculine n-stems: ‘boy’:

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative

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Neuter n-stems: ‘eye’:

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative f) r-stems Only four nouns: ‘brother’, ‘father’, ‘sister’, and ‘daughter’

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative g) nd-stems

Substantivized participles: ‘friend’

singular plural nominative accusative genitive dative

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h) Root nouns

‘temple’: singular plural

nominative

accusative

genitive

dative

2.3. The adjective

Strong adjective declension: ‘good’

singular plural masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter nominative / accusative / genitive dative

Weak adjective declension

singular plural masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter nominative accusative genitive dative

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2.4. The pronoun

a) Personal pronouns

1SG 2SG 1PL 2PL 1DU 2DU

nominative /

accusative /

genitive / /

dative /

Reflexive pronoun: ACC , GEN , DAT .

The third-person pronoun:

SG.M SG.F SG.N PL.M PL.F PL.N

nominative

accusative

genitive

dative

b) Possessive pronouns:

- ‘mine’, - ‘yours (SG)’, - ‘ours’, - ‘yours (PL)’. They are declined as strong adjectives.

singular plural masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter nominative / accusative / genitive dative

c) Demonstrative pronouns (The article)

SG.M SG.F SG.N PL.M PL.F PL.N

nominative

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accusative genitive dative

The demonstrative pronoun - ‘this’ is attested only in DAT.SG.M , ACC.SG.M , and NOM/ACC.SG.N . The pronoun ‘that’ is declined as a strong adjective. d) The pronoun - is always collocated with ( ‘the same’), hence it has weak adjective declension. e) The reflexive pronoun is formed by adding the postposition - to the corresponding form of a demonstrative: NOM.SG.M - > , GEN.SG.F - > , DAT.SG.M/N - > etc.