[tied] Re: final -s, IE

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
wrote:

> At 1:26:42 PM on Wednesday, October 13, 2004, Richard
> Wordingham wrote:
>
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao" <josimo70@...>
> > wrote:
>
> >> Is there any explanation why some IE languages dropped -s
> >> and another didnt?
>
> >> Ending -S is dropped in:
> >> Germanic
>
> > Not all of it. While English plural -s may derive from
> > *ses and 3s - s from 2s *-si, Icelandic preserves
> > nominative singular -s as -(u)r. I'm not sure of the
> > origin of Dutch/German plural -s (probably the same as
> > English) or the Scandinavian present tense ending -er, but
> > the consonants certainly represent PIE *s.
>
> I believe that the Scand. present tense -er is generalized
> from the 2s pres.ind., PScand *-iz, so the /r/ indeed
> represents PIE *s.
>

And the many plurals in Danish -r, -er, Swedish -ar, -or are also
from -z. The many Danish common gender plural -e correspond often to
Swedish -ar since Danish generalised accusative -a (hesta), Swedish
nominative -ar (hestar).

Torsten