Sergei:
>Not that I've got nothing to say, but there are definitely much more
>competent (and professional) members on the list (Jens, Piotr,
>Miguel, Glen, to name just a few). It would be very interesting to
>know their opinion on the issue.
Assuming just for the moment that I'm actually competent :) the number
of cases usually reconstructed number around seven or eight: the
nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, ablative
and instrumental.
Personally, I find myself interested in the origin of these cases.
From what I've reasoned, the nominative and accusative are by far the
most ancient, with the nominative being originally unmarked. In other
words, *-m is the most ancient case suffix in IE. The genitive and the
ablative would come next, while the locative, dative and instrumental
cases developed the latest, during the Late IE period. I'm confident
that IE had many cases, not just four.
- gLeN
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