Chaucer's English, in which Germanic weak
adjectives were still used more or less consistently, offers some striking
parallels. The weak ending -e appears quite often with adjectives preceding
proper nouns (grete Nero, faire Venus) and regularly in vocatives:
O stronge God
O wommanliche wyf
Nay, olde cherl
Goode fader, shal I dye?
False coward
However, it is dropped after disyllabic
adjectives and more generally (see the last example) when alternating
rhythm can be sustained without it:
O woful Mars
O wery goost
O verrey lord
O woful eyen two
O cruel fader
O oold unholsom and myslyved
man
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 8:04 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Norwegian Vocative
Neither PIE nor PGmc adjectives had
vocative forms. The retention of weak adjectives in direct address may be due to
eurhythmy. Alternating stress patterns are often preferred in fixed phrases and
idiomatic expressions.