MHG. OHG. MHG. OHG.

Nom. Acc. anst anst, _favour_ enste ensti
Gen. enste _or_ anst ensti enste ensteo, -io
Dat. enste _or_ anst ensti ensten enstim

In {jugent} (OHG. {jugund}, pl. {jugundi}), _youth_, gen. dat. {jugende}
beside {jugent}, pl. {jugende}, the original {-i} being in the third
syllable did not cause umlaut in the stem-syllable; and similarly
{tugent}, _valour_.

{hant}, _hand_, originally belonged to the {u-}declension, which
explains forms like gen. sing, and plural {hande} beside {hende}, dat.
pl. {handen} beside {henden}. The old gen. plural has been preserved in
NHG. {allerhand}, and the dat. plural in {abhanden}, {beihanden},
{vorhanden}, {zuhanden}.

Several old consonant stems went over partly or entirely into this
declension, viz. {maget}, {meit} (Sec. 37), _maid_, pl. {m[a:]gede} or {meide};
{kuo}, _cow_, pl. {k[u:]eje} or {k[u:]ewe} (OHG. {kuoi}), {s[u]}, _sow_, pl.
{siuwe} (OHG. {s[u]i}); both these nouns generally remained uninflected in
the gen. and dat. singular. {naht}, _night_, has gen. and dat. singular
{naht} beside {n[a:]hte}; pl. nom. acc. gen. {naht} beside {n[a:]hte}, dat.
{nahten} beside {n[a:]hten}, cp. also NHG. {weihnachten}, MHG. {z[e:]n w[i]hen
nahten}. The MHG. adverbial gen. {nahts}, {d[e:]s nahtes} was formed after
the analogy of {d[e:]s tages}. Like {naht} were also inflected {brust},
_breast_, and {burc}, _citadel_.

{muoter}, _mother_, and {tohter}, _daughter_, remain uninflected in the
singular. In the plural they have umlaut: {m[u:]eter}, {t[o:]hter}.

B. THE WEAK DECLENSION (N-STEMS).

Sec. 50.

The weak declension contains a large number of masculine and feminine
nouns, but only four neuter nouns, viz. {h[e:]rze}, _heart_, {[o]re}, _ear_,
{ouge}, _eye_, and {wange}, _cheek_; these nouns, especially {h[e:]rze},
sometimes form their nom. acc. plural after the analogy of nouns like
{k[u:]nne} (Sec. 46). The original case endings of the weak declension had
disappeared in the oldest period of the language except in the nom.
singular (masc. {-o}, fem., and neut. {-a}), the gen. pl. ({[o]no}) and
dat. pl. ({-[o]m}). Owing to the weakening of the {-o}, {-a} to {-e} in
MHG. the nom. singular became alike in all genders. And similarly the
endings {-[o]no}, {-[o]m} and the endings of the other oblique forms were
all weakened to {-en} in MHG. (Sec. 7), so that the elem