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loss of grammatical gender in English
If it is asked why the elaborate Old English system of [269] cases and genders has gradually disappeared, an answer that will meet with the approval of most linguists of the ordinary school is (in the words of J. A. H. Murray): “The total loss of grammatical gender in English, and the almost complete disappearance of cases, are purely phonetic phenomena”—supplemented, of course, by the recognition of the action of analogy, to which is due, for instance, the levelling of the nom.
— from Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin by Otto Jespersen


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