Re: [tied] Re: Nominative: A hybrid view

----- Original Message -----
From: Miguel Carrasquer
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Nominative: A hybrid view


> One thing about Polish is the very low frequency of the dative case. For
instance, I rarely get the chance to show off my knowledge that the o-stem
dat.pl. ending -om (-iom) has replaced all other dat.pl. endings in Polish.

Are you insinuating we aren't generous enough? :-))

The dative is in fact mostly used with animate nouns, since inanimates are
rarely rcipients of anything. There has always been a tendency in Polish to
make the dative endings more transparent than they originally were, hence
Modern Polish -owi (< *-ow-ei, taken from the rare *u-declension) in nearly
all masculines, in lieu of once prevalent -u (< *-o-ei).

Piotr