> Old Norse grammar ... adjectives were declined
> weak after the strong declined numeral "einn". ... I find it strange ...
I understand (with support from the books at hand, though none speaks
directly of Old Norse) that in "the old Germanic languages" the adjective
was normally declined weak after the strongly declined definite article - as
is the practice in modern German. It woudl therefore not seem too much of a
surprise to find the weak adjective also after the strongly declined
indefinite article.
Haavard went on:
> This suggests that the
> distinction indefinite/definite had become more important than
> strong/weak already in Old Norse.
Perhaps I misunderstand. To me it seems to suggest the opposite, that the
indefinite/definite distinction was lost in face of the strong/weak one:
provided the article has a strong ending, it doesn't matter whether it is
definite or indefinite. This also produces the system in modern German,
where the decision between strong or weak ending on the adjective is
determined solely by the presence or absence of a strong ending on the
article.
Peter