Archaic Dutch declension

The Dutch language in its modern form does not have grammatical cases, and nouns only have singular and plural forms. Many remnants of former case declensions remain in the Dutch language, but few of them are productive. One exception is the genitive case, which is still productive to a certain extent.^[1] Although in the spoken language the case system was probably in a state of collapse as early as the 16th century,^[2] cases were still prescribed in the written standard up to 1946/1947. This article describes the system in use until then. For a full description of modern Dutch grammar, see Dutch grammar. See also History of Dutch orthography.

^ "A cognitive account of the genitive case in present-day Dutch" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 13, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
^ E.g. the oldest grammar, Twe Spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst (1584), see dbnl already shows the confusion of masculine and feminine gender in the genitive as it quotes: "des heers, vrouws, diers", while at the same time trying to identify 6 cases as in Latin. The focus on Latin grammar would cause later grammarians to insist that "des vrouws" was wrong and to prescribe that it had to be "der vrouw".

[1] "A cognitive account of the genitive case in present-day Dutch" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 13, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2015.

[2] E.g. the oldest grammar, Twe Spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst (1584), see dbnl already shows the confusion of masculine and feminine gender in the genitive as it quotes: "des heers, vrouws, diers", while at the same time trying to identify 6 cases as in Latin. The focus on Latin grammar would cause later grammarians to insist that "des vrouws" was wrong and to prescribe that it had to be "der vrouw".

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