ction_
is superseded by a _combination_ of words.

The sentences in italics are mere variations of the same general statement.
1. _The earlier the stage of a given language the greater the amount of its
inflectional forms, and the later the stage of a given language, the
smaller the amount of them._ 2. _As languages become modern they substitute
prepositions and auxiliary verbs for cases and tenses._ 3. _The amount of
inflection is in the inverse proportion to the amount of prepositions and
auxiliary verbs._ 4. _In the course of time languages drop their
inflections, and substitute in its stead circumlocutions by means of
prepositions, &c. The reverse never takes place._ 5. _Given two modes of
expression, the one inflectional_ (smidhum), _the other
circumlocutional_[40] (to smiths), _we can state that the first belongs to
an early, the second to a late, state of language._

The present chapter, then showing the relation of the English to the
Anglo-Saxon, shows something more. It exhibits the _general_ relation of a
modern to an ancient language. As the English is to the Anglo-Saxon, so are
the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, to the old Norse; and so are the
French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanese and Wallachian to the Latin,
and the Romaic to the ancient Greek.

s. 97. Contrasted with the English, the Anglo-Saxon has (among others) the
following differences.

NOUNS.

1. _Gender._--In Anglo-Saxon there were three genders, the masculine, the
feminine, and the neuter. With _adjectives_ each gender had its peculiar
declension. With _substantives_ also there were appropriate terminations,
though only to a certain degree.

2. The definite article varied with the gender of its substantive; _thaet
eage_, the eye; _se steorra_, the star; _seo tunge_, the tongue.

3. _Number._--The plural form in -en (as in _oxen_), rare in English, was
common in Anglo-Saxon. It was the regular termination of a whole
declension; e.g., _e['a]gan_, eyes; _steorran_, stars; _tungan_, tongues.
Besides this, the Anglo-Saxons had forms in -u and -a as _ricu_, kingdoms;
_gifa_, gifts. The termination -s, current in the present English, was
confined to a single gender and to a single declension, as _endas_, ends;
_dagas_, days; _smidhas_, smiths.

4. _Case._--Of these the Saxons had, for their substantives, at least
three; viz., the nominative, dative, genitive. With the pronouns and
adjectives there was a true accusative form; and with a