Re: all possible cases ;-)

Jesse Bangs wrote:

> I've heard 30 for some Caucasion language (which is more
> than Nik's 20 reported cases). I have no external way to
> verify that, though.
IIRC, Finnish has 15 cases, one of which isn't in much use
anymore.

Regarding Caucasian languages, or at least Georgian, I think
it uses a system of different morphemes that can be combined.

I think Jörg Rhiemeier sent a post about this a while ago.
*searching* Found it! I'm resending it and I hope that Jörg
doesn't mind.

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote on Feb 8, 2001:

> Daghestanian (North East Caucasian) languages.  AFAIK, they
> have systems in which local cases are formed by attaching two
> phonemes to the noun, one from an "at", "in", "over", "under",
> "near", etc. series and one from a "to", "at", "from", "through",
> etc. series.
>
> So, the example would look like this (AFAIK, those languages are
> ergative and SOV):
>
> He-ABS wall-AT-TO walks.
> He-ABS wall-IN-TO walks.
> He-ABS wall-AT-FROM walks.
> He-ABS wall-IN-FROM walks.
> He-ABS wall-IN-AT walks.
> He-ABS wall-IN-THROUGH walks.
>
> (Perhaps the sequence of the morphemes is the other way 'round.)
Unfortunately, I've had to return my Georgian grammar to the
uni library, so I can't say exactly how it's done there but
I know it is something very similar (even though it's a South
East Caucasian language, rather than North East).

||| daniel