Re: Case question

"Mark J. Reed" wrote:
> > Two-case systems such that one case is used for S and the other for A and P.
>
> That seems really, really . . . wrong.  What natlangs do that??
Iranian does it in the past tense.

Historically, what happened was that, like the other Indo-Iranian langs,
the past tense is historically derived from a passive.  Thus, in the
past tense, the S and P were marked with one case, historically derived
from the nominative (and the same case used for S and A in present),
while the A was marked with another case, historically derived from
genitive.  Due to sound changes, that case merged with the accusative,
and thus you had the following system:

   Present    Past
S  Nominative Nominative
A  Nominative Accusative
P  Accusative Nominative

By analogy with the present, the P in past tense changed to Accusative,
creating the current system:

   Present    Past
S  Nominative Nominative
A  Nominative Accusative
P  Accusative Accusative

Some related languages have since changed A in past to Nominative as
well, also by analogy with present, thus restoring it to a sane system.

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