Niw Englisch/Adjectives

Adjectives in Niw Englisch operate much like they did in Old English and do currently in German.

Inflection

All adjectives have a strong and weak inflection. The strong inflection occurs when not preceded by a limiting article, while the weak inflection occurs after an article. Predicate Adjectives have no inflection.

Strong Declension

Case/Gender	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	-	-	e	e
Genitive	es	es	er	er
Dative	em	em	er	en
Accusative	en	-	e	e

These all can be derived from the Old English forms by weakening the ending vowel to schwa, written as 'e'.

Examples:

• ic habe strange Wille - I have strong will.
• wiȝ sind ferr - we are far.

Weak Declension

Case/Gender	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	e	e	e	en
Genitive	en	en	en	en
Dative	en	en	en	en
Accusative	en	e	e	en

Example:

• þat Huus þes alden Werres - the house of the old man
• þie Farbe þes niwen Autos - the color of the new car
• þat blæe Auto

Comparison

In Niw Englisch, comparison is done much like Old English and German. All adjectives take -er and -est in the comparative and superlative. Some one-syllable basic adjectives umlaut in those forms.

• ald old - ælder, ældest
• brad broad - bræder, brædest
• ferr far - fierr, fierrst
• great great - grietter, griettst
• ȝong young - ȝœnger, ȝœngst
• heah high - hierr-, hiehst-
• lang long - længer, længst
• schort short - schœrter, schœrtst
• strang strong - strænger, strængst-

Examples:

• ic em ælder þonn mein Weif - I am older than my wife
• Ic em þe ȝœngere Broðer - I am the younger brother
• þu ert þie ȝœngste Swester - you are the youngest sister.

Phrases

To say that something is more/less some quality than something else, just use the comparative and the adverb þonn afterwards, followed by the nominative case.

• Older/Younger Than - ælder/ȝœnger þonn

To say 'far from', use ferr and the noun in the inflected dative, especially for plural nouns:

• ic wune Byrgen ferr - I live far from cities
• Mein Broðer is ferr þem Huse - my brother is far from the house.

With pronouns, it is common to use 'fram', but without is perfectly correct:

• here Herte is ferr fram miȝ - her heart is far from me.

Adjectives with Noun Cases

Genitive

• gewiss - certain
  • gewiss þer Fakte - certain of the facts
• gewær - aware
  • gewær þer Andsware
• schyldiȝ - guilty
  • schyldiȝ þes Maanes - guilty of the crime
• werþ - worthy
  • he is werþ herer Teid - he is worthy of her time