Weak nouns are nouns that follow a
weak inflection
In grammar, the term ''weak'' (originally coined in German: ''schwach'') is used in opposition to the term ''strong'' (''stark'') to designate a conjugation or declension when a language has two parallel systems. The only constant feature in al ...
paradigm, in contrast with
strong nouns. They are present in several
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
.
English
Modern English
Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England
England is a Count ...
has only two vestiges of the weak noun inflection in common use: ''ox'', whose plural is ''oxen'', and ''child'', whose plural is ''children'', the latter being a
double plural. Additionally, the words ''aurochs'' and ''brother'' have the optional plural forms ''aurochsen'' and ''brethren'', the latter also being a double plural. The word ''men'' is not an example of the weak inflection, since it was produced by
i-mutation
I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...
of ''man''.
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
had many more weak nouns, such as ''ēage'' "eye" (plural ''ēagan'') and ''draca'' "dragon" (plural '), but these have all either disappeared or become strong nouns.
German
In
German, weak nouns are masculine nouns that all have the same inflection except in the nominative singular and sometimes the genitive singular.
German has many more weak nouns than English; for example, ''Bär'' (pl. ''Bären'') "bear", ''Name'' (pl. ''Namen'') "name", ''Held'' (pl. ''Helden'') "hero".
Some nouns such as the neuter noun ''Auge'' (pl. ''Augen'') have a mixed inflection, being strong in the singular but having the characteristic ''-en'' plural ending of a weak noun. Some nouns can be declined either with this mixed paradigm or as fully weak; for example, ''Nachbar'' "neighbor" may be declined strong in the singular, though its plural is always weak (''Nachbarn'').
Some weak nouns have a strong inflection in colloquial speech. For example, the standard accusative of ''Bär'' is ''Bären'', but the strong inflection ''Bär'' may also be heard.
Icelandic
In the
Icelandic language
Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national languag ...
,
noun
In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
s are considered weak if they fulfill the following conditions:
Masculines:
:The nominative singular ends in ''-i'', the other singular cases end in ''-a'' or ''-ja''.
:The noun is derived from the present participle of a verb, in which case the plural ends in ''-ur'' (but the singular follows the ''-i-a'' rule).
An example of the latter is ''nemandi'' (''student''), plural ''nemendur''. The words ''bóndi'' (''farmer'') and ''fjandi'' (''enemy'' or the ''devil'' or a ''demon'') belong to this class with some irregularities. The plural of ''bóndi'' is ''bændur''. ''Fjandi'' has two plurals, depending on the meaning. If it means an enemy, the plural is ''fjendur'' (note the retention of ''je''). If it means a demon, the plural is ''fjandar''.
Exceptions do exist, for instance ''Grikki'' (''Greek''), plural ''Grikkir''. The same applies to '' Tyrki'' (''Turk'') plural ''Tyrkir''. Both, incidentally, end in ''-ja'' in the oblique cases (''Grikkja'' is the accusative, dative and genitive for one Greek).
Feminines:
:The nominative singular ends in ''-a'', the other singular cases end in ''-u''.
:The singular ends in ''-i'' in all cases. (If there is a plural, it may end in either ''-ir'' or ''-ar''.)
Neuters:
:They end in ''-a'' in the singular in all cases. The plural ends in ''-u'' (but the genitive plural in ''-na'') without further alterations with the exception of ''hjarta'' (''heart'') which becomes ''hjörtu'' in the plural through u-
umlaut. The genitive plural, however is ''hjartna'' showing a-breaking instead of u-breaking. Some borrowings may exhibit similar behaviour, e.g, singular ''drama'', plural ''drömu''. Most of these are words for organs.
An almost exhaustive list of neuter weak nouns follows:
* auga (eye)
* bjúga (a type of sausage)
* eista (testicle)
* eyra (ear)
* hjarta (heart)
* hnoða (a woollen ball, most often encountered in fairy-tales)
* lunga (lung)
* milta (spleen)
* nýra (kidney)
Then there are a small number of borrowings like ''firma'', ''drama'', ''þema'' etc. none of which require translation.
See also
*
Strong noun
*
Icelandic language
Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national languag ...
References
*
{{lexical categories, state=collapsed
Icelandic language