5. +Grammar of the First Period, 450-1100.+-- The English of this period is called the +Oldest English+ or +Anglo-Saxon+. The gender of nouns was arbitrary, or-- it may be-- poetical; it did not, as in modern English it does, follow the sex. Thus +nama+, a name, was masculine; +tunge+, a tongue, feminine; and +eáge+, an eye, neuter. Like _nama_, the proper names of men ended in _a_; and we find such names as Isa, Offa, Penda, as the names of kings. Nouns at this period had five cases, with inflexions for each; now we possess but one inflexion-- that for the possessive. --Even the definite article was inflected. --The infinitive of verbs ended in +an+; and the sign _to_-- which we received from the Danes-- was not in use, except for the dative of the infinitive. This dative infinitive is still preserved in such phrases as “a house to let;” “bread to eat;” “water to drink.” --The present participle ended in +ende+ (in the North +ande+). This present participle may be said still to exist-- in spoken, but not in written speech; for some people regularly say _walkin_, _goin_, for _walking_ and _going_. --The plural of the present indicative ended in +ath+ for all three persons. In the perfect tense, the plural ending was +on+. --There was no future tense; the work of the future was done by the present tense. Fragments of this usage still survive in the language, as when we say, “He goes up to town next week.” --Prepositions governed various cases; and not always the objective (or accusative), as they do now.