On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 19:28:17 +0100 (MET), Jens Elmegaard Rasmussen
<
jer@...> wrote:
>There is no evidence in Celtic for the nominatives
I don't understand. OIr. tú is a nominative.
We have:
1. mé < acc. (*me)
2. tú < nom. (*tu)
And likewise in the plural we have:
1. sní < acc. (*n.smé)
2. sí < nom. (*swéy)
It's the same principle at work as I posit for the PIE plural/dual forms:
1. *mu-áti > *wéy < acc. (less commonly *més < nom.)
*mu-íki > *wéh1 < acc. (no evidence for **móh3)
2. *tu-átu > *yús < nom. (less commonly *swéy < acc.)
*tu-íku > *yúh3 < nom. (no evidence for **swéh1)
As we know from the sudy of split-ergativity, first person is higher up the
animacy scale than second person, so this is exactly what we might expect.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...