>There is one thing that has puzzled about IE acc *-m, though. >Sanskrit -m
>is weak, Latin -m disappears in poetry
>according to metric rules, Greek says -m -> -n, and everywhere else
>it disappears. Slavic nasalizes. So perhaps -m was only a
>nasalization of the previous vowel? Note the use of -m in present day
>Portuguese.
What previous vowel? The accusative *-m ending IS the vowel. At any rate,
this nasal ending is so widespread in IE languages as to give no doubt that
the ending was *-m. The IE plural accusative is *-ns which in all likelihood
was an anciently combined ending consisting of *-m (acc.sg.) plus *-es
(plural). Finally, the accusative *-m isn't even unique to IE. There is a
Uralic accusative *-m too.
To explain the IE reflexes as independent nasalization is far more
extravagant than the consensus solution.
- gLeN
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