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The inflection of a-stems in Old Novgorodian The alleged influence of the soft stems on the hard stems in Old Novgorodian is not actually confirmed by the facts. It is limited to the cases where the ending was -ě either in the hard type or in the soft type, and is never attested for other endings: the problem is not the relation between hard and soft types, but the status of -ě. Rather than an extension of soft endings to the hard stems, we are dealing with an extension of -ě, either from the hard stems to the soft stems (Dat.Loc.sg and dual of ja-stems), or from the soft stems to the hard stems (Gen.sg and Nom.Acc.pl of a-stems). This development is part of the process of elimination of the abnormal double alternation ě ~ i / y ~ ě (eliminated everywhere in East Slavic). It is a consequence of the extension of the ending of the hard type -ě to the soft type in the Dat.Loc.sg, which is a Common East Slavic innovation, showing the expected influence of the hard type. This innovation created a new structure in the soft type, with a unique ending for the Gen.Dat.Loc.sg, homophonous with the Nom.Acc.dual (where Old Novgorodian has - ě after the hard type instead of etymological -i). This new structure was identical with that of the -i- stems. The extension of -ě within the hard type reflects thus an alignment on the structure of other feminine paradigms: in Old Novgorodian, ail the feminine types acquired a unique form for the Gen.Dat.Loc.sg. It seems that the old Nom.Acc.dual form played an important role in this process. The evolution should be described not as a transfer of soft endings to the hard type, but rather as an internal reorganization within the hard type: a complex structure (that of the hard type) is simplified after the analogy of a less complex one (that of the soft type and of the i- stems, in which several case oppositions are neutralized). Modern dialects which have such a unique form of Gen.Dat.Loc.sg, like Old Novgorodian, are northern dialects (Pskov, Novgorod, Ladoga), spoken in areas where the Fennic substratum is well known, and it is possible that this simplification reflects the former situation of bilingualism, since simplification of linguistic structures is frequently observed in such a case.