--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, "jacoblochner" <jacoblochner@...>
wrote:

>
> Greetings all! I have recently begun to study the Old Norse language -
> I have a bit of a secret vice for languages - and I've run into a bit
> of a snag in my research.
>
> I am working on inflections and I am having trouble determining how to
> tell which declension to apply to which nouns. In what way can I
> discover, for example, when to apply an A-Stem declension or a WA-Stem
> declension? It is my understanding that the vowel stem was lost at
> some point in the language's history, so it has been a bit difficult
> for me to practise my paradigms.
>
> Any assistance anyone could offer in this would be greatly greatly
> appreciated.

You can't always tell from one particular form of a word, but entries
in dictionaries and glossaries typically give you enough information
to figure out what you need. Gordon's Introduction to Old Norse refers
you from glossary entries to the relevent section in the grammar part.
Once you've got the basics, you'll start to see lots of patterns and
be able to recognise which declension nouns belong to (usually) from
the forms quoted in dictionaries. There are lots of clues you can use
once you know what to look out for, e.g. if the dictionary has "böl
(dat. bölvi; gen. pl. bölva), n. bale, misfortune", you can see that
it's a wa-stem from the 'v' that appears in certain oblique forms that
are given. Likewise "söngr (-s, -var), m. (1) singing, music (heyra
fagran söng); (2) song, lay (upphaf sönganna)." Other declensions have
other distinguishing features, such as the accusative plural ending
'u' in u-stems.

"skjöldr (gen. skialdar, dat. skildi pl. skildir, acc. skjöldu), m.
shield".

These words also all have an extra clue in the mutations undergone by
the root vowel. Where words are irregular and don't fit neatly into
one particular declension, or where a declension has a lot of
variation, the dictionary entry will usually show you what you need:
those forms where the word is irregular, or how it goes on such points
as the declension itself varies a lot on. If you're still in doubt,
you might have to resort to looking up examples, and there are some
rare words where the declension may not be attested in full in the
surviving texts. Where the word has survived in Modern Icelandic, it
can be useful to check how it's declined there, bearing in mind small
regular differences between the medieval and modern paradigms, and a
few general trends that have caused words to drift from on declension
to another similar one.

Hmm, I hope that wasn't too vague...