Re: [tied] Re: final -s, IE

At 1:26:42 PM on Wednesday, October 13, 2004, Richard
Wordingham wrote:

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

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

>> 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.

I believe that the Scand. present tense -er is generalized
from the 2s pres.ind., PScand *-iz, so the /r/ indeed
represents PIE *s.

Brian