--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Mate Kapoviæ <mkapovic@...> wrote:
>
> On Sri, sijeèanj 9, 2008 1:08 am, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > There are some things in Slavic that are reminiscent of similar
> > features in Fennic, ie. the use of the genitive in Slavic and the
> > partitive in Fennic in negative contexts, where the rest of IE
would
> > use a nominative (afaIk).
>
> Use of genitive/partitive in partitive contexts also connects some
Slavic
> languages/dialects with Fennic (Finnish, Estonian...) with French
> (de-construction) and Basque. But this should be just typology.
Partitive genitive is well attested in Gothic, e.g. Joh. 6:51
_jabai hvas matjiþ þis hlaibis_ (Septuagint: EAN TIS FAGHi EK TOUTOU
TOU ARTOU); 1 Cor. 11:28 _jah swa þis hlaibis matjai jaþ-þis stiklis
drigkai_ (KAI hOUTWS EK TOU ARTOU ESQIETW KAI EK TOU POTHRIOU
PINETW). This might have been just a way to render Greek EK + gen.,
and Luc. 15:17 _ufarassau haband hlaibe_ calques Gr. PERISSEUONTAI
ARTWN, but the constant usage of genitive "in negative contexts" is
mostly divergent from the Greek text, cf. Luc. 1:7 _ni was im barne_
(OUK HN AUTOIS TEKNON, or should we assume TEKNWN in Wulfila's
Vorlage?); Luc. 2:7 _ni was im rumis_ (OUK HN AUTOIS TOPOS).
Interestingly, the example Mc. 4:5 _anþaruþ-þan gadraus ana
stainahamma, þarei ni habaida airþa managa, jah suns urrann, in
þizei ni habaida diupaizos airþos_ (KAI ALLO EPESEN EPI TO PETRWDES
hOPOU OUK EICEN GHN POLLHN KAI EUQUS EXANETEILEN DIA TO MH ECEIN
BAQOS GHS) utilizes both nominative and genitive in one sentence
following Greek (note the Greek substantivized infinitive in the
second case).
Partitive genitive in Russian may be due to a relatively late
influence from the Baltic Finnish substrate. Note that the North
Russian dialects (Slavo-Finnish contact area) make use of partitive
genitive also in positive contexts which finds exact correspondence
in Baltic Finnish (particularly in Suomi, see I. Vahros' Venäjän
genetiivi ja suomen partitiivi eritoten objektin ja subjektin
kaasuksina. Juhlakirja L. Hakulisen 60-vuotispäiväksi. Helsinki,
1959. Pp. 283ff).
Conclusion so far: the partitive genitive is hardly a result of
hypothetical European IE Uralic contacts in the proto-epoch but
rather either a typological feature attested in various IE
(Germanic, Romance) and non-IE (Finnish, Basque) languages or a
vestige of relatively recent contacts (North Russian < Finnish).
Ualarauans