shepherd_ hirte
Gen. hirtes hirte
Dat. hirte hirten

Sec. 44.

{Third declension.}--To this declension belong all masculine nouns
which form their plural in {-e} and with umlaut of the stem-vowel.
It includes: (a) the old masculine {i-}stems; (b) the old masculine
{u-}stem {sun} (OHG. {sunu}, {sun}), _son_; and (c) the two old
consonant stems {fuo[z]}, _foot_, {zant} (gen. {zandes}), {zan}, _tooth_.

SING. PLUR.
MHG. OHG. MHG. OHG.

Nom. Acc. gast gast, _guest_ geste gesti
Gen. gastes gastes geste gesteo, -io
Dat. gaste gaste gesten gestim

The singular of nouns of this declension was inflected like the
{a-}stems (Sec. 42) already in OHG. And owing to the weakening of the
case-endings of the plural in passing from OHG. to MHG. (Sec. 7), the only
difference in the two declensions is the presence or absence of umlaut
in the plural. The old masculine {i-}stems which could not have umlaut
in the plural accordingly came to be inflected entirely like the old
masculine {a-}stems, as {schrit}, _step_, {snit}, _cut_, {bi[z]}, _bite_,
pl. {schrite}, {snite}, {bi[zz]e}. A further consequence of the singular
being inflected alike in both declensions is that the old {a-}stems
began to have umlaut in the plural after the analogy of the {i-}stems,
as {gedenke}, _thoughts_, {n[a:]gele}, _nails_, {w[a:]gene}, _wagons_, beside
{gedanke}, {nagele}, {wagene}.

Nouns ending in the fortis {p, t, c}, or {f} (= Germanic {f}) regularly
change the fortis to lenis in the inflected forms, as {korp}, _basket_,
{walt}, _wood_, {slac}, _blow_, {brief}, _letter_, gen. {korbes},
{waldes}, {stages}, {brieves}.

Sec. 45.

The old consonant stems {vater}, _father_, {bruoder}, _brother_, often
remain uninflected in the singular, as gen. {vater}, {bruoder} beside
{vaters}, {bruoders} (cp. Sec. 9, 2). In the plural they take umlaut, as
{veter}, {br[u:]eder}. The old consonant stem {man}, _man_, is either
declined like {tac} (Sec. 42) or remains uninflected throughout, as

SING. PLUR.

Nom. Acc. man manne, man
Gen. mannes, man manne, man
Dat. manne, man mannen, man

The nom. plural {man}, now written {mann}, is still preserved in
counting, as {hundert mann}, _a hundred men_.

2. {Neut