Nouns

• Feminine Nouns
• Masculine Nouns
• Stem-Changing Nouns
• Invariable Substantives

Substantives in Latin

• Loss of final /m/
• Loss of vowel length
• Reduction of diphthongs
• Loss of final unstressed vowels

Substantives in Old French

Masculine Nouns

• I. Only in Masculine nouns is the case system really evident in OF.
• II. Nouns with -s in the nominative singular, there is no ending in the nominative plural

• 2nd declension masculine nouns:

• 2nd declension neuter nouns:

• 3rd declension masculine and neuter nouns:

• 4th declension masculine and neuter nouns:

• III. Some Masculine nouns have no -s marker in the nominative singular
• i.e. with 2nd declension masculine nouns in -er:

• and with 3rd declension masc. nouns in -er:

• Other nouns belonging to this group:
• gendre < GENER, GENERI
• ventre > VENTER, VENTRIS
• vespre > VESPER, VESPERIS

Feminine Nouns

• Show no trace of case system in OF
  
• Latin 1st declension nouns:
  

  CAUSA > chose	CAUSAE > choses
  CAUSAM > chose	CAUSAS > choses

• Latin 5th declension nouns. (Completely Feminine with one exception DIES, DIEI):
  
• Reinterpreted as 1st declension forms.

  FACIES *facia > face	FACIES *facias > faces
  FACIEM *facia(m) > face	FACIES *facias > faces

• Some remodelling of 2nd, 3rd and 4th declension neuter plurals.
  
• They looked feminine and therefore went with the 1st declension.
  
• Analagous to other external forms.
  

  ARMUM	ARMA	reinterpreted as	arma	armas
  ARMUM	ARMA		arma	armas

  OTHERS:

• DIGITA > OF deie (doigt)
  
• MARABILIA > merveille

• In some cases, doublets result:

• BRACHIUM > braz
  
• BRACHIA > brace (brasse)

• GAUDIUM > OF joi
  
• GAUDIA > joie

• Nouns with -s marker in nominative singular
• Frequently, the -s marker in the singular is lost by analogy with the class I feminine nouns. In some cases, the noun becomes invariable in -s. Most frequent invariables are riens, amors, saluz, amistiez, and nuiz.
• Feminine nouns in -é belong to this class: citez and bontez.

  -s	-s
  --	-s

• 3rd declension (mostly) feminine nouns
  
• This is the anomoly
  
• No mute /e/ from the Latin /a/.
  

  FLOS *floris > flors	FLORES > flors
  FLOREM > flor	FLORES > flors

• Includes many imparisyllabics which were remodelled on the basis of the parisyllabics of the same declension which had identical forms in the nominative and genitive singular. FLOS, FLORIS was remodelled as FLORIS, FLORIS by analogy with nouns such as CANIS, CANIS.

• 4th declension feminine nouns

  MANUS > mains	MANUS > mains
  MANUM > main	MANUS > mains

Stem-Changing nouns

• Shifting tonic stress: Deriving from imparasyllabic nouns (shorter stem in the nominative singular) which also had a shifting pattern of tonic stress.
• Masculine Nouns

  -ere	-eor
  -eor	-eors

  IMPERÁTOR	*IMPERATÓRI
  IMPERATÓREM	IMPERATÓRES

  
  

  emperére	empereór
  empereór	empereórs

  • (Also -iere, -eor, and earlier forms: -edre, -edor, -iedre, -edor)
  • Category also includes numerous agents:
  • defendere, defendeor
  • joglere, jogleor
  • trovere, troveor

  -0	-on
  -on	-ons

  BÁRO	BARÓNI
  BARÓNEM	BARÓNES

  
  

  bér	barón
  barón	baróns

  • These are words of both Latin and Germanic origin as well as a number of proper names:
  • compaing, compaignon
  • fel, felon
  • Bret, Breton
  • Charles, Charlon
• A number of isolated nouns, some of which may not have and -s marker in the nominative singular, others which do not, according to their etymon in Latin.
• abes, abé
• enfes, enfant
• sire, seignor
• Feminine Nouns
  • (Derive from a pattern of -a, -anem, parrallel to the masculine -on, <-onem)

    none	nonains
    nonain	nonains

  • ante, antain
  • taie, taiain
• Isolated

  suer	serors
  seror	serors

• Fixed Tonic Stress: Two isolated nouns:

  HÓMO	*HÓMINI
  HÓMINEM	HÓMINES
  om	ome
  ome	omes

  CÓMES	*CÓMITI
  CÓMITEM	CÓMITES
  cuens	conte
  conte	contes

• Note: the NS om will appear in a number of variant forms: uem, huem, hon, hons, hom, on, en, etc.

Invariable Substantives

• BOSCU
• CORPUS
• PRETIU
• TEMPUS
• PASSU