Re: The personal pronouns of PIE (and other families) are loans

From: tgpedersen
Message: 43054
Date: 2006-01-20

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, g <st-george@...> wrote:
>
> > Some of it points in the direction of loss of dative as a
category,
> > but the problem is I don't know whether this loss is complete or
> > only for certain articles, or adjectives, or nouns. I'd like to
see
> > a statement to that effect (loss of dative) in a grammar of a
> > southern dialect (sorry for being so suspicious ;-).
> >
> > Torsten
>
> I can't give you a scientific answer, but I'd point out
> that... "der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod" :-)
> http://www.google.com/search?
> hl=de&q=%22der+dativ+ist+dem+genitiv+sein+tod%22&btnG=Suche&meta=
>
> This is the famous joking saying that alludes to the
> fact that German native-speakers in general more and
> more tend to replace the genitive with the dative.
> Hence, the dative is strong -- in Low German areas
> as well (I don't know how it is exactly when those
> people speak their Low German dialects *proper*, i.e.,
> not German with mere Low German phonetics and 2-3
> regionalisms).
>

That's a Southern thing, I believe. The Northern genitive-killer
is 'von' (Dutch 'van') afaIk.


Torsten