 Even though Gaulish texts from the 7th century rarely confuse both forms, it is believed that both cases began to merge in Africa by the end of the empire, and a bit later in parts of Italy and Iberia.Nowadays, Romanian maintains a two-case system, while Old French and Old Occitan had a two-case subject-oblique system.This Old French system was based largely on whether or not the Latin case ending contained an "s" or not, with the "s" being retained but all vowels in the ending being lost (as with "veisin" below).