--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, enlil@... wrote:
>
> >>>> How would Lith. dukte:~ and Skt. duhitá: proceed from a form
in
> >>>> *-té:r ?
> >>>
> >>> Common, everyday erosion.
> >>
> >> And where else does such erosion apply in these languages?
> >
> > Where does the erosion of the nominative in *-us apply in Romance
> > languages?
>
> I mean to say "where _else_".
It doesn't apply anywhere in Old French, where the masculine
nominative singular preserved -s. In French we have the abandonment
of the nominal case system, possibly because the system was crazy:
Masculine:
S. Pl.
Nom: -s -0
Acc: -0 -s
Feminine
S. Pl.
Nom: -0 -0
Acc: -0 -s
'-0' means there was no ending.
I suspect all of Western Romance developed the same way, but I don't
know for sure.
In Eastern Romance, including Italian, final -s was lost in words of
more than one syllable and became -i in monosyllables.
So, Glen, I don't understand your point.
Richard.