Re: [tied] Indo-Iranian plurals [was: Germanic nominal declensions]

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 24688
Date: 2003-07-19

19-07-03 11:01, tgpedersen wrote:

> Across the board?

Yes. And in Middle Persian (Pahlavi) as well as in Parthian the
characteristically West Iranian plural ending <-a:n> was generalised.
Modern Persian has either <-a:n> or <-ha:> (from the old collective
*-iya-þva-) in non-Arabic nouns. At the far eastern end of Middle
Iranian, the Khotanese plural endings were <-a> (m.) and <-e> (f.). In
some of the modern languages (e.g. Pashto) a reflex of *-a:(h) < IIr.
*-a:s survives, but I know of no traces of extended *-a:sas in languages
other than Avestan and Old Persian.

Piotr