Re: [tied] Germanic nominal declensions

From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 24585
Date: 2003-07-16

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:39:07 +0100, P&G <petegray@...> wrote:

Thanks for teh commenst (and the reference to Streitberg).

>>Gen. *-osyo *-asa
>>Runic -as, OE (West-Saxon) -æs > -es, OS -as. Gothic -is comes from the
>>pronominal ending *-esyo > *-esa. Loewe suggests that OS -es and OHG -es
>>cannot come directly from *-esa, which would have given *-is (*e > *i when
>>unstressed), and represent contamination between -as and -is, but I very
>>much doubt that. I think *e before *a simply gives /e/, even in unstressed
>>position. Any more recent suggestions?
>
>Streitberg is not very helpful here. He says the e of unstressed syllabel
>in OS and OHG is striking. He does however add other interesting stuff:
>In Germanic only the genitive -so (not -syo) appears, and the final vowel
>vanished before the beginning of the [attested dialects]. It is striking
>that the s of the ending is always voiceless. [He therefore rejects accent
>variations, and also suggests analogical rebuilding] He says: ON shows -o-
>in the stem vowel, and early OE, but -e- appears in Gothic, OS and OHG. I
>note that he gives teh OS as -es, not -as as you have it. He quotes dages

Loewe gives both -as and -es for OS ("as. armas" and "as., ahd. armes").
It's clear that the G.sg. in Germanic seems to continue only the stress
pattern *-ósyo (*-ésyo). In the case of *-ésyo that's not surprising, as
the ending is analogical after the pronoun *ésyo.

>>Dat. *-o:i *-ai
>>Loc. *-oi *-ai
>>North and West Germanic -e could come from either Dat. or Loc. Gothic -a
>>cannot come from either (we'd expect -ai), so it's a instrumental.
>
>Streitberg says "It isdifficult to give a positive explanation of the Gothic
>dative. Most probably it is from a one-syllable pronominal instrumental
>(examples)"

The o-stem instrumental was *-oh1 (with acute accent), which should have
given -o, Gothic -a. Why the need for monosyllabic pronominal ending?

>Instrumental: Sreitberg also notes forms in *-mi and *-bho

In Germanic?

>Locative: traces in OE "instrumental" -e < -i [examples]; also OIce
>dative -e.

Is there a way to distinguish between Dat *-o:i and Loc *-oi?


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...