Page:A simplified grammar of the Swedish language.djvu/84

66 interest second only to that of its sister-form of speech the Icelandic, or Forn-Norskan of the ninth century, whose earliest literary remains are admitted to be the most perfect representatives extant of the so-called Old Northern. And if Forn-Svenskan has comparatively little importance from a merely literary point of view, a study of its grammatical structure, and of numerous survivals in the later forms of Swedish, will be found to throw considerable light on the process of development through which many English as well as Scandinavian words have passed, showing that notwithstanding their actual differences they have had one common origin.