Editing Instrumental case (section)

===Germanic===
[[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] inherited the Indo-European instrumental case, but in nouns, the case was almost entirely lost in [[Gothic language|Gothic]], [[Old Norse]] and [[Old Frisian]], which indicated the instrumental case with the dative inflection in all but a few relic forms.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|§7.3}} Early [[Old High German]] and [[Old Saxon]] nouns do exhibit an instrumental case, for example Old High German ''wortu'' 'word' and Old Saxon ''hoƀu'' 'court', where the -''u'' ending derives from a Proto-Indo-European instrumental inflection *-''ō''.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|§7.8}} In adjectives, no instrumental plural inflection can be reconstructed for Common Germanic, but the early [[West Germanic]] dialects did retain a distinctive instrumental singular strong adjective ending.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|§9.2}} Similarly, in demonstrative and interrogative pronouns, there is no evidence for distinctive instrumental plural inflections, but the West Germanic dialects and, less often, Old Norse and Gothic, retained distinctive instrumental singular forms.<ref name=":0" />{{rp||pages=|location=§8.10-13}}

====Old English====
The instrumental case is found in certain usages in [[Old English]]. It has left a legacy in Modern English, in the words "why" and "thus": 'why' is from '''hwy''', the instrumental case of 'hwa / hwæt' (who / what) and 'thus' apparently from '''þys''', the instrumental case of 'þes / þis' (this).

Adjectives and the demonstrative and interrogative pronouns all have instrumental forms. Adverbs are commonly formed in Old English by adding ''-e'' to the adjective, which is the adjective's instrumental case.<ref name=sweet/>

In Old English, the instrumental case denotes means or manner, in such phrases as "'''oþre  naman''' Iulius" ('by other name called Julius') or expressions of time: "'''þy ilcan dæge'''"; 'on the same day'.<ref name=sweet>'Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Primer' (9th edition) (Clarendon Press, Oxford)</ref> (In these examples, the whole expression is in the instrumental case, but only the ''oþre'' or ''þy'' is distinctive in form from the dative.)

====Development into Middle High German====
In nouns, the Old German instrumental was replaced with the dative in [[Middle High German]], comparable with English and Ancient Greek, with a construction of ''mit'' (with) + dative clause (in English, the objective case is used). For example:

"Hans schrieb '''mit einem''' Stifte*."<br/>
(John [nominative] wrote with a [dative] pencil [dative].)

''<nowiki>*</nowiki>the German dative -e is not used in most common conversation; it is only used here for a better demonstration.''

*ein = a, nominative case masculine/neuter → einem = a, dative case masculine/neuter
*(der) Stift = (the) pencil, masculine, nominative
*(dem) Stifte = (the) pencil, masculine, dative