Re: Order of cases

From:    Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
> On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 17:49:31 +0200, Philip Newton
> > When I saw a book in English for English people learning German, I
> > remember being surprised that it had NOM-ACC-(don't remember the order
> > of the other two).
>
> The order I learned was Nom, Acc, Dat, Gen, and it's the order I recite
> mentally to this day. I have no idea why that order was chosen.
This is how I learned it as well, for Latin and German.  Incidentally,
in Georgian, it's:

  Nominative
  Ergative (or, homonymously, Narrative)
  Dative
  Genitive
  Instrumental
  Adverbial

Meskwaki is another interesting example.  There, you'd have:

  Vocative
  Locative

..since all other relations are shown on the head verb!

> > ObConlang: if your conlang uses IE-oid cases, in which order do you
> > typically list them?
In Phaleran:                  In C'ali:

(Nominative, in pronouns)     Agentive
(Absolutive, in pronouns)     Patientive
Ergative                      Genitive/Possessive
Absolutive
Dative
Benefactive
Instrumental
Durative
Abessive

(C'ali is more head-marking than Phaleran is, so it is perhaps
not surprising that it has fewer cases.)

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