Old English give certain evidence of an influence on syntax. The change to Old English from Old Norse was substantive, pervasive, and of a democratic character. Old Norse and Old English resembled each other closely like cousins and with some words in common, they roughly understood each other; in time the inflections melted away and the analytic pattern emerged. It is most "important to recognize that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages that only the endings would put obstacles in
God (word) God (word) The English word god continues the Old English ' (' in Gothic, ' in Old Norse, ' in Frisian and Dutch, and ' in modern German), which is derived from Proto-Germanic '. The Proto-Germanic meaning of ' and its etymology is uncertain. It is generally agreed that it derives from a Proto-Indo-European neuter passive perfect participle '. This is similar to Persian word for God, Khudan. This form within (late) Proto-Indo-European itself was possibly ambiguous, and thought to derive from a root "*" "to pour, libate" (Sanskrit ', see '), or from a root "*" ("*") "to call,