Ieldran (elders) occurs only in the plural.

Ġe·fēa (joy) is contracted throughout:—ġefēa, ġefēan.

WEAK NEUTERS.

So also ēare 'ear.'

WEAK FEMININES.

So also ċiriċe (church), fǣmne (virgin), heorte (heart).

Lēo (lion) has acc., &c. lēon.

PROPER NAMES.

Native names of persons are declined like other nouns:—Ælfred, gen. Ælfredes, dat. Ælfrede; Ēad-burg (fem.), gen. Ēadburge, &c.

Foreign names of persons sometimes follow the analogy of native names, thus Crīst, Salomon have gen. Crīstes, Salomones, dat. Crīste, Salomone. Sometimes they are declined as in Latin, especially those in -us, but often with a mixture of English endings, and the Latin endings are used

somewhat loosely, the accus. ending being often extended to the other oblique cases; thus we find nom. Cȳrus, gen. Cȳres, acc. Cȳrum, dat. Cȳrum (þǣm cyninge Cȳrum).

Almost the only names of countries and districts in Old English are those taken from Latin, such as Breten (Britain), Cęnt (Kent), Ġermānia (Germany), and those formed by composition, generally with land, such as Ęnġla-land (land of the English, England), Isr·ahēla-þēod (Israel). In both of these cases the first element is in the gen. pl., but ordinary compounds, such as Scot-land, also occur. In other cases the name of the inhabitants of a country is used for the country itself:—on Ēast-ęnġlum = in East-anglia, lit. 'among the East-anglians.' So also on Angel-cynne = in England, lit. 'among the English race,' more accurately expressed by Angelcynnes land.

Uncompounded names of countries are sometimes undeclined. Thus we find on Cęnt, tō Hierusalēm.

Ġermānia, Asia, and other foreign names in -a take -e in the oblique cases, thus gen. Ġermānie.

ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives have three genders, and the same cases as nouns, though with partly different endings, together with strong and weak inflection. In the masc. and neut. sing. they have an instrumental case, for which in the fem. and plur., and in the weak inflection the dative is used.

STRONG ADJECTIVES.

Adjectives with a short syllable before the endings take -u in the fem. sing. nom. and neut. pl. nom., those with a long one drop it.

		SINGULAR.
		Masc.	Neut.	Fem.
(a)	Nom.	cwic (alive),	cwic,	cwic-u.
	Acc.	cwic-ne,	cwic,	cwic-e.
	Dat.	cwic-um,	cwic-um,	cwic-re.
	Gen.	cwic-es,	cwic-es,	cwic-re.
	Instr.	cwic-e,	cwic-e.	(cwicre).
		PLURAL.
	Nom.	cwic-e,	cwic-u,	cwic-e.
	Dat.		cwic-um.
	Gen.		cwic-ra.

So also sum (some), fǣrlic (dangerous).

Those with æ, such as glæd (glad), change it to a in dat. gladum, &c.

Those in -e, such as blīþe (glad), drop it in all inflections:—blīþne, blīþu, blīþre.

Those in -ig, -el, -ol, -en, -er, -or often contract before inflections beginning with a vowel, as in hāliġ (holy), hālges, hālgum; miċel (great), miċlu, miċle. Not, of course, before consonants:—hāliġne, miċelne, miċelra.

Those in -u, such as ġearu (ready), change the u into a w before vowels:—ġearwes, ġearwe.

Adjectives with long syllable before the endings drop the u of the fem. and neuter:—