Declension.—The I.-E. languages seem originally to have had three numbers and eight cases. In Teutonic there is scarcely any trace of the dual in nouns. All the early Teutonic languages pre served the Nominative, Accusative, Genitive and Dative. The Vocative was kept in Gothic and the Instrumental to a consider able extent in early German, while the earliest Anglo-Saxon pre served many traces of the locative.
The case endings are best preserved in the earliest Northern inscriptions and in Gothic. Whatever changes have taken place have usually tended towards simplification; thus there are but few traces of stem-variation (ablaut) between different cases of the same noun.
Adjectives.—The treatment of adjectives was more peculiar. In addition to the old type of declension which conformed to that of the demonstrative pronoun, almost every adjective was in flected also after the model of n-stems. This type of inflection occurs chiefly in conjunction with the demonstrative pronoun (definite article).
The comparative of adjectives is formed partly by a suffix -izan-, and partly by a - suffix -Ozan- which is peculiar to Teutonic. Similarly the superlative is formed partly by a suffix -ista-, and partly by a new formation -6sta-.
Most of the I.-E. demonstrative pronouns are found in Teu tonic, and the peculiarities of their inflection are in general well preserved. The place of the relative pronoun is supplied by the demonstrative or by indeclinable forms. The inflection of the per sonal and reflexive pronouns is for the most part peculiar to Teutonic.
Conjugation.—The Teutonic verb-system is simpler than that of most of the I.-E. languages. The old Middle Voice is pre served only in Gothic, where it is used as a passive. In the other Teutonic languages only one or two isolated forms remain. In place of the Conjunctive and Optative, there is but one mood which is generally called Conjunctive, though its forms are mostly of Optative origin. There are only two tenses, Present and Pret erite, the latter of which is derived partly from the I.-E. Perfect, partly from Aorist or Imperfect formations. A few old Perfects, which have no Presents, retain their original meaning and are gen erally known as Preterite-presents. In place of the Future the
Teutonic languages use either perfective verbs (generally com pounded with a preposition) or a periphrasis consisting of the In finitive with an auxiliary verb.
The conjugation of the Pres. Indic. Act. corresponds in general to that of most of the I.-E. languages. Gothic had also forms for the 1, 2 dual, bairos, bairats, which have not been satisfactorily explained. In the other languages there is scarcely any trace of the dual. The conjugation of verbs corresponding to the Greek verbs in µc is preserved best in Old High German. A number of archaic forms are preserved in the "verb substantive." The forms of the Conjunctive (Optative) and Imperative correspond in gen eral to those of the other I.-E. languages.
The Preterite formations are of two types, usually termed "strong" and "weak." The latter belong to verbs whose past parti ciple has a stem -da- (I.-E. -t6-; see below), the former to the remaining verbs. The singular of the strong Preterite is derived from the I.-E. Perfect, while the plural, which in most verbs has a different stem, may come either from the Perfect or from Aorist formations. In the plural the endings were originally accented; hence many verbs show differences not only in the stem vowel but also in the consonants (by Verner's Law, see above) between the two numbers. Except in Gothic and Scandinavian the 2 sing. has generally a form (originally Aorist) similar to the plur. The stem of the Conjunctive also agrees with that of the plural.
The "weak" Preterite seems originally to have arisen out of a periphrastic formation of which the second part consisted of Imperfect or Aorist forms of the verb. The short reduplication syllable, however, is lost in the sing., while the long syllable of the plur. (and dual) is preserved only in Gothic.
The stem of the weak Preterite almost always conforms to that of the past participle. The inflection of the Conjunctive agrees with that of the strong Preterite.
The Infinitive is formed from the present stem with an ending -an, and probably was originally a case-form of a verbal noun. In the western languages we find also the Dative of a stem -anja used after a preposition.