[tied] Transhumance [Re: etyma for Crãciun]

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:

> At 6:11:00 AM on Tuesday, January 6, 2004, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> > <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
>
> >> The elimination of case forms was a prolonged and gradual
> >> process in Bulgarian, just as in English. It began about
> >> 1100 and reached completion about 1400.
>
> > It is not "prolonged and gradual" in the speech of the
> > individual speaker. Cases either are there or they aren't.
>
> Not true, unless you're talking about a single token. A
> speaker may use inflexional forms on some occasions and not
> others, with different percentages of use and non-use for
> different speakers (and for that matter for a single speaker
> in different social contexts).
>

Granted. Danish presents were officially inflected sg -er, pl -e
until the beginning of the 20th century (now -er in all persons and
numbers), but the first indication of wavering is found back in the
13th century.

Torsten