--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Peter P" <roskis@...> wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Which goes to imply that perhaps to speakers of Finnic, absence
> > of a distinction between Nsg and Asg was rather ordinary.
> >
>
> In Finnish the accusative and nominative plural endings are the
> same, -t. In sentences in the imperative mood the nominative
> and accusative sing. are endingless. In non-imperative sentences
> the accusative sing and gen. sing. share the same ending, -n.
>
> Not everyone agrees that there is an accusative case in Finnish,
> except for 7 pronouns all of which end in -t in the accusative.
>
> Aja auto tänne! - Drive the car here.
> Hän ajaa auton tänne - He will drive the car here.
> He ajavat hänet tänne - They will drive him here.
>
> auto - the nominative or endingless looking accusative.
> auton - the genitive looking form.
> hänet - one of the 7 pronouns that appear in the accusative.
>
from Daniel Abondolo (ed.)
The Uralic Languages
"
Case
In proto-Uralic, the noun had at least two grammatical cases: an
accusative *-m, which probably was used chiefly to mark the definite
direct objects of finite verbs (i.e. verbs inflected for person), and
a subordinative suffix *-n which functioned as a
genitive/prenominalizer with nouns and as an adverb-formant with
verbs. There were also at least three local cases, including a
locative *-nA, a separative *tA ~ *-tI, and perhaps the latives *-k
(and/or *-n,) and *-cJ (and/or *-nJ).
The local subsystems of the case paradigms of most of the present-day
languages reflect a three-way spatial opposition, with stasis
(locative) opposed to motion, and, within the motion subcategory,
motion towards a target (various latives) opposed to motion away from
a source (various separatives). A few languages have only one fully
productive suffix for each spatial subtype, e.g. the three-member
system of Sosva Mansi (locative:lattive: ablative), but most have at
least one more. In richer case systems, hypertrophy of the lative
category is the norm.
Grammatical cases.
With the exception of South Mansi, the core languages preserve little
or no trace of the accusative *-m. It is unlikely, but just barely
possible, that the Hungarian possessive suffixes s1 -m, s2 -d continue
earlier sequences containing the accusative (< *-m-mV, *-m-tV). There
is no trace of an accusative *-m in Khanty. In Permian, the vocalic
accusative suffixes of certain personal pronouns (e.g. -ë, -e in the
first-person singular pronouns Komi men-e, Udmurt mon-e) are thought
to be continuations of the stem-final vowel, protected by a final *-m
which was eventually lost.
At and near the periphery, evidence for pU accusative *-m is fairly
clear. South of Northern Saami, Western Saamic has denasalized
reflexes, e.g. Lule Saami goade-v 'hut sA'. In Fennic, *-m > *-n in
final position, and the *-m accusative thus fell together with the *-n
genitive. Accusatives in -n are found throughout most of the
present-day North Fennic dialects (see Chapter 3), and morphophonemic
traces of a suffix at least similarly shaped may be found elsewhere in
Fennic, e.g. weak-grade nn in Estonian venna 'brother sG', cf.
strong-grade nd in the nominative singular vend. In Mordva, where
there was a parallel, probably independent, syncretism of accusative
and genitive, both of these cases are now marked with -nJ, presumably
after *m > n in final position and with analogical spread of the
automatically palatalized variant in front-prosodic sequences; the
details are not clear, however (see Chapter 6). There is no
unambiguous reason to doubt that the accusative -m of Mari is a direct
descendant of pU *-m. In Samoyedic, pU *-m is reflected clearly in
Tundra Nenets, e.g. myad°-m and Selkup, e.g. Taz Selkup mååt-&m2, both
'tent sA'.
Accusative *-m in the branches of Uralic:
Sm Mr -- -- Sa
Fe Md -- Mn
Despite its broader functional definition, the pU 'genitive' in *-n is
slightly less well attested; it has vanished without trace in all four
core branches:
Sm Mr -- -- Sa
Fe Md -- --
Clear examples of the continuation of a pU *-n genitive are Finnish
vede-n, Erzya Mordva vedJ-enJ, Meadow Mari BüD-&n, Taz Selkup üt-&n2
'water sG'.
In languages with syllabic consonant gradation, a trace of earlier *-n
lies in the morphophonemics of weak-grade forms such as Northern Saami
goaDi 'tent sG', cf. nominative singular goahti, Estonian venna 'sG'
(homophonous with the accusative venna 'brother' cited above), and
Nganasan, e.g. sG k&Du 'fingernail', cf. nominative k&tu.
"
Torsten