Re: cases

Hello,

[Jim Grossmann:]
> Peter Clark wrote:  "If there are langs (con- or nat-) that
> only have two,
> I'd
> be interested in hearing about it."
>
> What about English nouns, with common and possessive cases?
Or Swedish?

Or the French of the 14th century (is there a Middle French?), whioch
had a nicely compact system:

        Sg.     Pl.
Direct  roy     roys
Oblique roys    roy

The same holds true for Modern Irish, which has a dative, but it isn't
current at all, and is used almost exclusively in fossilized
constructions. The Irish 1st declension has the same nice system as set
out above:

        Sg.     Pl.
Nom.    ceart   ceirt
Gen.    ceirt   ceart

Modern Irish also has a vocative: a Phádraig, but it's not strictly
speaking a case.

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

Is mall a mharcaicheas am fear a bheachdaicheas
                 --Scottish proverb

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