Accusative was allative

Well-known facts:
PIE was an accusative language.
pre-PIE was an ergative language.
(pre-pre-PIE was a stative language.)


Kenneth Shields proposes that PIE acussative (*-m) was a pre-PIE
absolutive. That makes it marked, which is odd for an absolutive.

I think the PIE accusative was the pre-PIE allative. That's why
the 'local case' system of PIE is asymmetric: ablative but no
allative (as I was puzzled by some years back). Also that means that
the pre-PIE absolutive was unmarked.

Which means it's easier to see all the oblique cases as developed
from 'local cases', genitive from locative, dative and instrumental
from ablative, and accusative from 'allative' etc.

Torsten