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nouns: · a-stems · va-stems · ja-stems · ia-stems · ô-stems · vô-stems · jô-stems · iô-stems · i-stems · u-stems · an-stems · ôn-stems · în-stems · nd-stems · root nouns · r-stems ·
nouns: U-STEMS

to Old Swedish inflection

The u-stems are all masculine. They have quite a complex inflexion, because the stem is affected by both umlaut and breaking.
If the stem vowel was originally an /e/ this /e/ is broken into /ja/ in some cases and /jö/ in others, and i-umlauted into /i/ in some. The original /e/ is never there to be seen. If the stem vowel was originally /a/ it was umlauted into /e/ (i-umlaut) in some cases, into /ö/ in others (u-umlaut), and not umlauted in yet others. There are also some with other root vowels, like /o/ or /i/. They are i-umlauted where possible.

sing.plur.sing.plur.sing.plur.
nom.skjöld-r nom.skild-irnom.knör-r nom.knerr-irnom.son-r nom.syn-ir
gen.skjald-ar gen.skjald-agen.knarr-ar gen.knarr-agen.son-ar gen.son-a
dat.skild-i dat.skjöld-umdat.knerr-i dat.knörr-umdat.syn-i dat.sun-um
acc.skjöld- acc.skjöld-u
> skild-i		acc.knörr- acc.knörr-u
> knerr-i		acc.son- acc.sun-u
> syn-i

like skjöldr:like knörr:
· skjöldr 'shield'
· björn 'bear' (also a common name)
 · knörr 'trade ship'
· vörðr 'guard'
· örn 'eagle'
like sonr:others:
· only sonr 'son'
In OSwed. also:
· lutær/lotær (= OIcel. i-stem hlutr) 'part' 		· viðr 'wood, forest'
· friðr 'peace'
· siðr 'custom'

Since the word tøgr/tegr/tigr/tugr 'ten' so often is without accent it has gotten an inflection of its own.
Later the vowel alternations were evened out, so that either one of the vowels was used in the entire paradigm (nom. tøgr/tegr/tigr/tugr, gen. tøgar/tegar/tigar/tugar &c.). 		sing.plur.
nom.tøg-r nom.tigi-ir
gen.teg-ar gen.teg-a
dat.tigi-i dat.teg-um
acc.tøg- acc.teg-u/tug-u

There are no neutral and feminine u-stems in ON but in pre-ON times there were. The old neutral u-stem fé 'cattle' is an a-stem in ON, but it still has the u-stem genitive ending -ar (fjár). Likewise, the old feminine u-stem hand 'hand' is inflected like a root noun, but has the dative form hendi, which looks like a u-stem form (cf. knerri). In gothic these words are fehu and handus (both u-stems).
The origin of the endings:
sing: nom: -uR < -uz < -us ; gen: -ôR < -auz < -ous ; dat: -ju < -ju < loc. -êu ; acc: =i-stem or -u < -un < -um
plur: nom: -iR < proto-germ. -juz < -iwiz < i-e. -eues (-eu+es) ; gen: =i-stem ; dat: -umR < -umiz < -umes ; acc: -un < -uns < -uns
© Peter Pettersson