On 2006-08-12 19:39, tgpedersen wrote:
> I don't get the whole idea of 'importation from pronouns'.
> What would be the point of that? Suppose instead PIE
> *-od/-o:d was originally a partitive ending (?= Lat. de,
> ?= Slav ot) and *-od -> gen. -a, *-o:d -> nt. nom.,acc. -o ?
Pronominal inflections are often imported into the noun system.
Well-known examples include the nom.pl. *-oi of animate o-stems in
several branches of IE and Gothic gen.sg. -is < *-es(j)o (as could be
expected, there are also examples of levelling in the other direction).
The reason is that a demonstrative pronoun often occurs next to a noun
in the same noun phrase, and the two must agree gramatically. Rhyming
endings emphasise the agreement (same function --> same form).
Piotr