OIcel morphology

OIcel definite article

As in modern Scandinavian languages, the OIcel definite article is present both as a suffix on nouns and as an independent word. The form of the definite article depends on gender, number, and case. This follows strong adjective declension on the root in-.

№.case	masc	fem	neut
sg.nom	inn	in	it
sg.gen	ins	innar	ins
sg.dat	inum	inni	inu
sg.acc	inn	ina	it
pl.nom	inir	inar	in
pl.gen	inna	inna	inna
pl.dat	inum	inum	inum
pl.acc	ina	inar	in

These appear as standalone words in a noun phrase containing adjectives, e.g.

• inn gamli maðr ‘the old man’

If a definite noun is the soul constituent of a noun phrase, then the article appears enclitically at the end of the noun.

• maðrinn nom.sg ‘the man‘
• gjǫfin nom.sg ‘the gift’

If the declined noun ends in a vowel or an -r in plural¹ the i is removed from the definite suffix.

• sagan nom.sg ‘the saga’
• armarnir nom.pl ‘the arms’

Finally the ending -um combines with inum to form unum

• gjǫfunum dat.pl ‘the gifts‘

For examples, see OIcel noun phrase examples.

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Footnotes

1. Not in singular, for example kerlingarinnar gen.sg ‘the old woman’. ↩