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.

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.

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.

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