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The saxon genitive is the traditional term used for the "'s" word ending in the English language. The term is now infrequently used by linguists who argue that "'s" represents a possessive, not a genitive. And moreover the "'s" now functions as a clitic rather than a case ending.
Modern English forms the saxon genitive as follows
Regular noun Regular noun Irregular nouns
not ending in "s" ending in "s"
Singular 's 's 's
Plural s' es' 's
Example cat's pass's child's
cats' passes' children's
Pronouns do not combine with "'s" to form possesives; there are a range of Possessive pronouns used instead.
In Old English nouns declined according to grammatical gender. The modern saxon genitive is derived from the strong masculine genitive case of Old English. The plural forms are a relatively modern innovation, and are not derived from Old English
Gender Singular Plural
Strong masculine -es -a
Weak masculine -an -ena
Strong feminine -e -a
Weak feminine -an -ena
Strong neuter -es -a
Weak neuter -an -ena
The term "saxon genitive" is in analogy to the genitive in classical Latin.
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