Page:A simplified grammar of the Swedish language.djvu/60

42 3. The Third Declension, which includes nouns of all genders, contains a large proportion of foreign words. The termination -er in the plural, which is its distinctive character, is unknown in genuine Swedish words of the neuter gender, and is due to German and Danish influences.

4. The Fourth Declension, to which belong only neuter nouns ending in a vowel, includes the neuter nouns of the older form of the language ending in a and other vowels, which early in the eighteenth century began to acquire the plural termination -n, which is now the characteristic distinction of this declension.

5. The Fifth Declension, which includes masculine and neuter nouns, remains unchanged in the plural, although there is a tendency among modern writers to add -er or -r to express the plural; as, svarander instad of svarande, 'defendants.'

Many nouns vary in declension either from uncertainty of gender or from difference of meaning; as, bolag, n. sing. bolag, m. pl., 'partnership.'

Many nouns are of irregular declension; as, sko, m., skor, pl., 'shoe;' fot, m., fötter, pl., 'foot;' öga, n., ögon, pl., 'eye;' öra, n., öron, pl., 'ear.'

In these instances the apparent divergencies from the established rules are dependent on the declension originally followed by the word in the Old Northern.

Similar traces of the ancient construction are to be found in certain words and expressions which retain the termination of the original genitive, as, among many others, in giftoman, 'guardian' (giver in marriage);