Re: [tied] Definite adjectives

10-12-03 17:16, Harald Hammarstrom wrote:

> But then I read in _The History of the Lithuanian Language_ that
> 1) This cannot date back to Proto-Balto(-Slavic) because of the
> (existence of) psotposed locatives in -en in lithuanian that are attached
> to the basic adj. stem as well as the following pronominal element. But I
> don't follow this argument - couldn't that have happened after the breakup
> of Proto-Balto-Slavic but still before the fusing of the adj. ending
> and the pron. element in Lithuanian (or all of Baltic)?

Of course. The fusion was not yet complete in Proto-Slavic. OCS still
had nom.sg. dobrU-jI (--> dobryjI), gen.sg. dobra-jego, dat.sg.
dobru-jemu, loc.sg. dobre^-jemI, etc. (although with what looks like
haplological reduction in ins.sg. dobryjimI for *dobromI-jimI).

> Any light on these issues are appreciated. (The similarity in Germanic can
> of course not be genetic).

It seems to be an ancient areal thing -- like the postposed articles in
the Balkan sprachbund.

Piotr