Re: final -s, IE

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" <josimo70@...> wrote:

> Is there any explanation why some IE languages dropped -s and

another didnt?

> Ending -S is kept in:
> Baltic
> Latin (even Romance)

But lost in Eastern Romance (incl. Italian), and French (except in
liaison and some exceptional forms), reduced to /h/ in several
American dialects of Spanish.

> Proto-Celtic, Gaulish

They're older than the modern forms :)

> Greek
> Hittite
>
> Ending -S is dropped in:
> Germanic

Not all of it. While English plural -s may derive from *ses and 3s -
s from 2s *-si, Icelandic preserves nominative singular -s as -(u)r.
I'm not sure of the origin of Dutch/German plural -s (probably the
same as English) or the Scandinavian present tense ending -er, but
the consonants certainly represent PIE *s.

> Slavic
> Sanskrit (>h)
> Avestic

(But now gone in most, if not all, modern Iranian languages!)

> Armenian
> Modern Celtic languages
> Tocharian
>
>
> Is there any reason to drop the -s ? Accent position? Substratum?

The presence or ausence can be used to define some kind of group?

It's largely a matter of time, possibly combined with issues of
usefulness. Loss is a bit jagged - a different contrast could be
drawn up for the loss of the thematic vowel in nominative singular *-
os.

Richard.