Re: Indo-European question

On Sun, 17 Jun 2001, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Patrick Dunn wrote:
> > Is there an PIE paradigm somewhere on the web, by any chance?
>
> Perhaps.  But, I don't know of any site.  However, my "The World's Major
> Languages" gives the following as one reconstruction of the PIE noun
> paradigm (according to Szemerényi, 1980):
>
>     Sing            Dual       Plural
> Nom -s, 0           -e, -î/-i  -es
> Voc 0               -e, -î/-i  -es
> Acc -m/-m=          -e, -î/-i  -ns/-n=s
> Gen -es/-os/-s      -ous? -ôs? -om/-ôm
> Abl -es/-os/-s;     -bhyô, -mô -bh(y)os, -mos
>     -ed/-od
> Dat -ei             -bhyô, -mô -bh(y)os, -mos
> Loc -i              -ou        -su
> Ins -e/-o, -bhi/-mi -bhyô, -mô -bhis/-mis, -ôis
> Copied exactly, except that macrons are rendered with circumflexes, and
> = should be a circle under the letter.
>
> And goes on to say: "These endings represent a composite set of
> possibilities for the Proto-Indo-European noun; no single form reflects
> them all."
That'll come in handy.  I want to make a pseudo-Indo-European language
from the roots, something that *could* have evolved.  I'll have to
simplify, probably.

When one is offered several choices above, are those variations within a
single word class, or examples of different declensions?

--Pat


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