Old Church Slavonic Grammar - Adjectives

Adjectives

OCS adjectives can be in two forms: short and long, corresponding to indefinite and definite meaning respectively. The long form is generally used only attributively, whereas the short form is predicative in nature. So, e.g., člověkъ dobrъ "a good man, man is good" whilst člověkъ dobryi "the good man, the man who is good".

Indefinite adjectives are inflected as the corresponding nouns of the primary declension, e.g., novъ as rabъ, nova as žena, novo as selo, ništь as vračь, ništa as duša, nište as polje.

Definite adjectives (also known as compound, long, or pronominal forms of adjective) are formed by suffixing to the indefinite form the anaphoric third-person pronoun (spelled as i in OCS orthography), ja, je as shown in the table.

N novъ + i (jь) = novъjь > novyi nova + ja = novaja
G nova + jego = novajego novy + jeję = novyję
D novu + jemu = novujemu nově + jei = nověi
A novъ + i (jь) = novъjь > novyi novǫ + jǫ = novǫjǫ
L nově + jemь = novějemь nově + jei = nověi
I novomь + imь = novъimь > novyimь novojǫ + jejǫ = novojǫ, novǫjǫ
N, A nova + ja = novaja nově + i = nověi
G, L novu + jeju = novuju novu + jeju = novuju
D, I novoma + ima = novyima novoma + ima = novyima
N novi + (j)i = novii novy + ję = novyję
G novъ + ixъ = novyixъ novъ + ixъ = novyixъ
D novomъ + imъ = novyimъ novamъ + imъ = novyimъ
A novy + ję = novyję novy + ję = novyję
L nověxъ + ixъ = novyixъ novaxъ + ixъ = novyixъ
I novy + imi = novyimi novami + imi = novyimi

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