Finding
I propose that the East Baltic act.
Paper
THE EAST BALTIC ACCUSATIVE PLURAL
Abstract
The traditional comparative grammars suppose that the East Baltic o-stem XC. plur. ending -us is to be derived from IndoEuropean * -6rcs which passed to *-tions and then to -zoos which in word final position was shortened to -zcs.l) Support for a posited Indo-European act. plur. ending -iins is thought to be found in the Skt. act. plur. ending -gin. But the Sanskrit forms can easily be explained analogically. According to A. Thumb, ‘Wegen des ai. -tin ist es jedoch nicht niitig, ein idg. -6ns anzusetzen; devin kann zum Nom. Pl. d8vlfh nach dem Muster der Singula;*formen dt%&: dt%am (bzw. d&m im Sandhi vor t, d) geschaffen sein?) I propose that the East Baltic act. plur. ending -zcs (dial. -zcrts) can be better explained as a borrowing from the act. plur. of the etymological N-stern nouns. Such borrowings of case endings from one class of nourts to another are not infrequent in the IndoEuropean languages. In Slavic the etvmological &stem genitive plural ending -o&i has spread to the o-stem nouns. In Latin, for example, the consonant stem nouns have the lot. sing. ending -2’ by analogy with the iand o/e-stems?) Such an explanation was not proposed before because it was thought that the definite forms of the East Baltic adjective which contained an -UOS (cf. Lith. -zcosilcs, Latv. -aces) presupposed an original Vs. But this is a needless hypothesis. Here I must digress to explain mv view of the Common East Baltic vocalic system. For this I PO& four phonemes, viz. /f, 8, 6, d/. The diphthongs traditionally written as -zcoand -iecan be
Authors
W. Schmalstieg
Journal
Lingua