C. Accidence.
I. Substantives.
Observations.
10. A well-known peculiarity of ME. is to be noticed here. The forms of the substantives and adjectives show some confusion when compared to the OE. declensions. By the side of the full inflexions, which are generally preserved, we meet not infrequently with reduced ones and they are sometimes dropped altogether. The cases in which a full ending is used where no such ending occurs in OE. are rare.
20. As in other e ME. mss. the distinction between the dative and the accusative singular is particularly difficult after the prepositions which govern both cases, as wið and mid. The one may be admitted as well as the other when there is no difference of form between the two, viz. in the ā stems, in the i stems with an originally short root-syllable, or in the weak declensions. However as in the majority of cases where the distinction is possible the dative is certainly used, I admit it wherever a clear accusative form does not occur. In one case, viz. Wið earena sar ⁊ sweȝe 1422 I am tempted to understand the uninflected sar as a dative, for sweȝe cannot possibly be an accusative. Cf. the note.
§ 38. o stems.
[Here and in the following §§ (38–44) it has been thought useless to separate, when necessary, the nouns with originally long from those with originally short root-syllable otherwise than by the sign ;].
10. Masculine nouns.
Singular–N. haȝol 216, ȝyrdels 219, wol 416, horn 87.
