Unhappily, we English have been busy, for the last four thousand years, clipping and paring down our inflections, until very few of them are left to us. Of all Europeans, we have been the greatest sinners in this way. Well said the sage of old, that words are like regiments: they are apt to lose a few stragglers on a long march. Still, we can trace a few inflections, that are common to us and to our kinsmen who compiled the Vedas.
In Substantives, we have the Genitive Singular and the Nominative Plural left.[1]
| Sanscrit. | Old English. | New English. | |
| Nom. Sing. | Asva-s (horse) | Wulf | Wolf |
| Gen. Sing. | Asva-sja | Wulfes | Wolf's |
| Nom. Plur. | Asva-sas | Wulfâs | Wolves |
I give a few Suffixes, common to Sanscrit and English forms of the same root: —
Ma; as from the root gna, know, we get the Sanscrit nâman and the English nama, name.
Ra; as from the root ag, go, we get the Sanscrit agra and the English acre.
- ↑ English, in respect of the Nominative Plural, comes nearer to the Mother Speech than German does.
