John wrote:
> Mangiat scripsit:
>
> > Latin cases are _all_ marked in some
> > nominal declension paradigms, and most IE languages have the same
> > alternations. The root _lupo-_, for instance, (wolf) never shows up,
indeed:
> > you get _lupus_ in the nom. and _lupum_ in the acc.; you have _lupo:_ in
the
> > dat. and abl., but with a long _o:_.
>
> It's not 100% clear how real "lupus" and "lupum" are; in Old Latin writing
> we find "lupos", "lupom", and that may have always been the actual
> pron. even before the Romance collapse of short u into o. (What has
> Sardinian got here?)
I don't know the Sardinian word for "wolf" for sure, but it might very well
be _lupu_. Sardinian is reknown for its final -u's which make it so funny
(to a Std Italian ear):
It. bello
Sa. beddu
(_dd_ is a retroflex- what's it in SAMPA-IPA?)
Luca
> In any event, -s and -m were pretty much gone by the
> first century B.C.E. though maintained in conservative Latin orthography.
>