ii2 Accidence [§§ 243-3
			$242. Weak. SING. Masc. Neut. Fern. Nom. f numana 1 nasida numanō nasidō numanō nasidō Ace. í numanan I nasidan numanō nasidō numanōn nasidōn arc. &c. &c.
		D. THE COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. i. The Comparative Degree. § 248. The Indg. parent language had several suffixes by means of which the comparative degree was formed. But in the individual branches of the parent language one of the suffixes generally became more productive than the rest, and in the course of time came to be the principal one from which the comparative %vas formed, the other suffixes only being preserved in isolated forms. The only Indg. comparative suffix which remained productive in the Germanic languages is -is-, which became -iz- (=Goth. •iz-, OHG. -ir-, OE. -r-) in prim. Germanic by Verner's law (§ 136). To this suffix was added in prim. Germanic, or probably in the pre-Germanic period, the formative suffix .en-, -on·, as in Gr. ή8ίω>· from *σFā^ίσωv, gen. ήδίοΐΌ? = Goth, sutiza, gen. sutizins, OHG. suo%iro, gen. suo-ζ-iren, OE. swētra, sweeter, gen.swētran. This explainswhy the comparative is declined weak in the oldest periods of the Germanic languages. In Gothic it is declined like the present participle (§ 239), except that the nom. sing. masc. is always weak. Beside the suffix -iz· there was also in prim. Germanic a suffix -ōz- (Goth, -ōz-, OHG. -or-, OE. -r·) which did not exist in Indo-Germanic. This suffix is a special Germanic new formation, and arose from the comparative of adverbs whose positive originally ended in