§ 49] Declension of Nouns 43 of the weak declension, especially in the plural. This process spread considerably in MHG. with concrete nouns, but not often with abstract nouns. § 49. Second declension.—To this declension belong all feminine nouns which form their plural in -e and have umlaut in the stem-vowel. It includes: (a) the old femi- nine i-stems; (b) the old u-stem hant, hand; and (c) several old consonantal stems, see below. SING. PLUR. MHG. OHG. MHG. OHG. Nom. Ace. anst anst,favour enste ensti Gen. enste or anst ensti enste ensteo,-io Dat. enste or anst ensti ensten enstim In jugent (OHG. jugund, pi. jugundi), youth, gen. dat. jugende beside jugent, pi. 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. banden beside henden. The old gen. plural has been preserved in NHG. allerhand, and the dat. plural in abhanden, beihanden, vorhanden, zu- banden. Several old consonant stems went over partly or entirely into this declension, viz. maget, meit (§ 37), maid, pl. mägede or meide; kuo, cow, pl. kiieje or küewe (OHG. kuoi), sū, sow, pl. siuwe (OHG. sūi); both these nouns generally remained uninflected in the gen. and dat. singular. naht, night, has gen. and dat. singular naht beside nähte; pl. nom. ace. gen. naht beside nähte, dat. nahten beside nähten, cp. also NHG. Weihnachten, MHG. zën wīhen nahten. The MHG. adverbial gen. nahts, des nahtes