East Romance -i v. West Romance -s (was: Rom aia - Alb ajo < PAlb a

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> It's interesting (at least to me) that western Romance picked the
> consonant ending -s of acc. pl. to be the caseless pl., while
> eastern Romance picked the vowel endings -i, -ae. Once that ending
> was shibbolethised, is it possible -i spread to other abodes of -s,
> ie 2nd sg., in eastern Romance?

Your suggestion needs some dates. Remember that Old French still
distinguised nominatve and accusative, especially in the 2nd
declension - see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_French - or
look it up in the well-stocked library you frequent. I think the
abandonment of the case distinction in nouns is too late for your
theory to work.

Richard.