Re: all possible cases ;-)

daniel andreasson <danielandreasson@...> writes:

> 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.
Not Georgian.  Only Northeast Caucasian languages.

> 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.
No, nothing wrong with it!  Be my guest!

> Jörg Rhiemeier wrote on Feb 8, 2001:
>
> > [NEC "case construction kit"]
>
> 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).
It isn't in the Georgian grammar, anyway.  Georgian is Kartvelian
(or South Caucasian), a family now held to be unrelated to
Northeast Caucasian, and doesn't have a case system like that.
AFAIK, Georgian has only 7 cases, though it of course has a number of
postpositions, perhaps with similar effect.  (The Northwest Caucasian
languages, yet a different family altogether, have even fewer cases.)

Better try, for example, Lak, which definitely *does* have a system of
the kind I have described above.  (I've seen it, but I don't have it at
hand.)

I have my doubts whether a language can ever be "case-complete".
I once made a list of cases that could exist in one or the other
language, and I came up with more than 50 cases, and even that is
certainly far from complete.  I posted that list on September 13, 2000.
The subject was
"Re: DOS (was Re: Re Robot); conlangs with LOTS of cases".
There could be many more than on that list.

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