Re: [tied] Germanic nominal declensions

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003, Miguel Carrasquer wrote:

> Gen. *-osyo     *-asa
> Runic -as, OE (West-Saxon) -æs > -es, OS -as.  Gothic -is comes from the
> pronominal ending *-esyo > *-esa.  Loewe suggests that OS -es and OHG -es
> cannot come directly from *-esa, which would have given *-is (*e > *i
> when
> unstressed), and represent contamination between -as and -is, but I very
> much doubt that.  I think *e before *a simply gives /e/, even in
> unstressed
> position.  Any more recent suggestions?

The e-forms are those of pronouns (OHG tages like des) where the vowel was
in the initial syllable.

Jens