mother tongue, have followed a similar process. Thus for example, dag hinn, 'day that,' gradually assumed its present agglutinated form of dagen, 'the day.'
The demonstrative pronoun served in Old Northern to define the object, like a simple definite article, of which there is no other representative in the older Icelandic writings; nor is there any trace of a distinct indefinite article till a comparatively recent period, when its place was supplied by the numeral einn, mas., ein, fem., eitt, n., 'one.' From this has been derived the modern Swedish article en, ett, 'a,' 'an,' which is merely the unaccentuated form of the word which expresses the numeral 'one.'
The Swedish Independent Definite Article (Fristående Artikel), is:—
Singular. Plural. masc. and fem. neuter. all genders. den, the det, the de, the.
This article is merely an unaccentuated form of the demonstrative pronouns, dēn, dēt, dē, derived from the Old Northern hinn, hin, hitt, hinir, hinar, hin. It directly precedes the noun which it defines, or the adjective which qualifies the latter; as, den gosse, 'the boy;' den qvinna, 'the woman;' det barn, 'the child;' de dalar, m., 'the valleys;' de sagor, f., 'the tales;' de bälten, n., 'the belts.' Den flitige gossen, 'the diligent boy;' den ädla qvinnan, f., 'the noble woman;' det goda barnet, 'the good child;' de djupa dalarne, m., 'the deep valleys;' de gamla sagorna, 'the ancient tales;' de korta bältena, 'the short belts.'
