Re: Indo-European question

Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Anybody who feel disoriented by PIE inflections can give a thought to a
> Swedish lady who wrote to local language column about her theory that
> German's annoying inflection tables had been invented by medieval monks who
> had nothing better to do. Evidently she was fully serious.
I have heard this thesis before. My German teacher last fall (who was a
Germanic studies grad student) said that the German nominal inflection
system (which had already been largely lost) was "re-invented" in the
15th century by monks who wanted it to look more Latinate. If the German
and English inflectional systems started to deteriorate around the same
time (I don't know this for a fact, although, from what I've read, I
think it is true), then I can certainly see where this thesis is coming from.

--
Daniel Seriff
microtonal@sericap.com
http://members.tripod.com/microtonal

Honesty means never having to say "Please don't flush me down the toilet!"
                      - Bob the Dinosaur

Reply