12. =FRAGMENTS OF INFLECTIONS IN PREPOSITIONS.=--_Since_ is the possessive case of the old English word _sithen_. The following are the steps: _Sithennës_; _sithens_; _sithence_; _since_.--_After_ is the comparative degree of the old preposition _af_ (= of), which meant _from_. _Over_ is another comparative form, from a root which appears in _up_. CHAPTER III. =Changes in Modern English.= 1. =FORMATION OF MODERN ENGLISH.=--We have seen that the substance of the living English tongue was brought from Germany to this island by our Teutonic ancestors. We have seen also that it has undergone a great variety of influences, the greatest and strongest of which was the Norman Conquest. For a long time after the Conquest, the English language was the tongue of a subject and humiliated race; it ceased to be fashionable, and almost ceased to be literary. In the thirteenth century it began to revive, but with very important changes; the inflections, and many of the old English words, being lost, and a multitude of new words being introduced. In Chaucer’s time it regained its old position as the language of the court, of fashion, and of literature. In 1485 we find the language in all important respects fixed as we have it now. Every intelligent Englishman is able to understand all that has since been written. Modern English, then, dates from 1485, the year when the Wars of the Roses ended with the battle of Bosworth, and the Tudor line ascended the throne. It was the time also when the art of printing was introduced by Caxton; and about the time when the two great events, the Revival of Learning and the Reformation, took place. 2. =CONTINUED HISTORY OF OUR LANGUAGE.=--It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that the language has no history after 1485. Language is the expression and embodiment of thought; and as thought varies with the varying experience of man, language must change accordingly. Since 1485 the English people have gone through marvellous changes--changes in political and social life, in science, in art, and industry. They have planted extensive colonies, they carry on trade in every part of the world, and have dealings with every nation. In all this widening and progressive life, we have got to know far more than we did in 1485, and thus require to use a multitude of words unknown to the people of that period. The result has been a large addition to our vocabulary. 3. =BORROWING FROM SPANISH AND ITALIAN.=--Under the heading ‘Latin of the Fourth Period,’ we have noted the number of words borrowed from the Latin during the sixteenth century. We are now to observe that about the same time there was a considerable borrowing of words from the Spanish and Italian. Of course, as Italian and Spanish are offshoots from Latin, these words also are mostly of Latin origin.