In the Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish this peculiarity in the position of the definite article is preserved. Its origin, however, is concealed; and an accidental identity with the indefinite article has led to false notions respecting its nature. In the languages in point the i is changed into e, so that what in Icelandic is it and in, is in Danish et and en. _En_, however, as a separate word, is the numeral _one_, and also the indefinite article _a_; whilst in the neuter gender it is _et_--en sol, _a sun_; et bord, _a table_: solon, _the sun_; bordet, _the table_. From modern forms like those just quoted, it has been imagined that the definite is merely the indefinite article transposed. This it is not. To apply an expression of Mr. Cobbet's, _en_ = _a_, and -en = _the_, are _the same combination of letters, but not the same word_. § 41. Another characteristic of the Scandinavian language is the possession of a _passive_ form, or a _passive_ voice, ending in -st:--_ek_, _þu_, _hann brennist_ = _I am_, _thou art_, _he is burnt_; _ver brennumst_ = _we are burnt_; _þér brennizt_ = _ye are burnt_; _þeir brennast_ = _they are burnt_. Past tense, _ek_, _þu_, _hann brendist_; _ver brendumst_, _þér brenduzt_, _þeir brendust_. Imperat.: _brenstu_ = _be thou burnt_. Infinit.: _brennast_ = _to be burnt_. In the modern Danish and Swedish, the passive is still preserved, but without the final t. In the _older_ stages of Icelandic, on the other hand, the termination was not -st but -sc; which -sc grew out of the reflective pronoun _sik_. With these phenomena the Scandinavian languages give us the evolution and development of a passive voice; wherein we have the following series of changes:--1. the reflective pronoun coalesces with the verb, whilst the sense changes from that of a reflective to that of a middle verb; 2. the c changes to t, whilst the middle sense passes into a passive one; 3. t is dropped from the end of the word, and the expression that was once reflective then becomes strictly passive. Now the Saxons have no passive voice at all. That they should have one _originating_ like that of the Scandinavians was impossible, inasmuch as they had no reflective pronoun, and, consequently, nothing to evolve it from. * * * * * CHAPTER V. ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.--GERMANIC ELEMENTS.--THE ANGLES. § 42. The language of England has been formed out of three elements. a. Elements referable to the original British population, and derived from times anterior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion. b. Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, or imported elements. c. Elements introduced since the Anglo-Saxon conquest. § 43. Each of these requires a special analysis, but that of the second will be taken first, and form the contents of the present chapter.