[§ 90]. Recapitulating, we find that the characteristic differences of the greatest importance between the Icelandic and Saxon are three in number:—
1st. The peculiar nature of the definite article.
2nd. The neuter form of the adjectives in -t.
3rd. The existence of a passive voice in -sc, -st, or -s.
[§ 91]. In the previous comparison the substantives were divided as follows:—1st. into those ending with a vowel; 2ndly, into those ending with a consonant. In respect to the substantives ending with a vowel (eáge, nama, tunge), it may have been observed that their cases were in A. S. almost
exclusively formed in -n, as eágan, tungan, &c.; whilst words like skip and smið had, throughout their whole declension, no case formed in -n; no case indeed wherein the sound of -n entered. This enables us (at least with the A. S.) to make a general assertion concerning the substantives ending in a vowel in contrast to those ending in a consonant, viz. that they take an inflection in -n.
In Icelandic this inflection in -n is concealed by the fact of -an having been changed into -a. However, as this -a represents -an, and as fragments or rudiments of -n are found in the genitive plurals of the neuter and feminine genders (augna, tungna), we may make the same general assertion in Icelandic that we make in A. S., viz. that substantives ending in a vowel take an inflection in -n.
[§ 92]. The points of likeness and difference between two languages, belonging to different divisions of the same Germanic branch, may be partially collected from the following comparison between certain Mœso-Gothic and certain Anglo-Saxon inflections.
[§ 93]. It must, however, be premised, that, although the distinction between nouns taking an inflection in -n, and nouns not so inflected, exists equally in the Mœso-Gothic and the Icelandic, the form in which the difference shows itself is different; and along with the indication of this difference may be introduced the important terms weak and strong, as applied to the declension of nouns.