<Tr> <Td> Early Modern English, c. 1600 AD </Td> <Td> oːn>! wʊn </Td> <Td> twuː> tuː </Td> <Td> θriː </Td> <Td> foːr </Td> <Td> fəiv </Td> <Td> siks </Td> <Td> sevən </Td> <Td> mʊðər </Td> <Td> hert </Td> <Td> heːr </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Modern English, c. 2000 AD </Td> <Td> wʌn </Td> <Td> tuː </Td> <Td> θriː </Td> <Td> fɔː (r) </Td> <Td> faiv </Td> <Td> sɪks </Td> <Td> sevən </Td> <Td> mʌðə (r) </Td> <Td> hɑrt / hɑːt </Td> <Td> hiːr / hiə </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> </Th> <Th> one </Th> <Th> two </Th> <Th> three </Th> <Th> four </Th> <Th> five </Th> <Th> six </Th> <Th> seven </Th> <Th> mother </Th> <Th> heart </Th> <Th> hear </Th> </Tr> <P> The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to Latin, modern German and Icelandic. Old English distinguished among the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases, and for strongly declined adjectives and some pronouns also a separate instrumental case (which otherwise and later completely coincided with the dative). In addition, the dual number was distinguished from the singular and plural . Declension was greatly simplified during the Middle English period, when the accusative and dative cases of the pronouns merged into a single oblique case that also replaced the genitive case after prepositions . Nouns in Modern English no longer decline for case, except for the genitive . </P>

The english language is divided into how many historical periods