Re: Order of cases

I assume that the genitive is second because to its stem are added
the endings for the other cases.  This can't be done with the
accusative because, in some cases, e.g., neuters of the third
declension, the the accusative is the same as the nominative.  I have
no idea why the order of the remaining cases.

Charlie

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Philip Newton <philip.newton@g...>
wrote:
On Thu, 30 Sep 2004 10:36:16 -0600, Dirk Elzinga <dirk_elzinga@b...>
wrote:
> One more thing. After I posted on the presentation order of case in
the
> Old germanic grammars I have available to me, I looked in some Latin
> textbooks, and the order there is the same as the German order (NOM
GEN
> DAT ACC ABL), so maybe the German grammatical tradition borrowed the
> order of cases from Latin.
Quite possibly.

And the grammar of Modern Greek in Greek that I have uses the order
NOM GEN ACC VOC, and a grammar of Ancient Greek in for Greek
schoolchildren (written in Modern Greek) uses NOM GEN DAT ACC VOC -
again, the same as Latin and German (the way I know it), modulo
missing cases.

I wonder whether Latin borrowed its order from Greek... Or, for that
matter, why Greek used/uses this order, since NOM=ACC there, too, for
a fair number of nouns. (On the other hand, knowing the genitive is
useful for declining some nouns correctly; maybe that's why it comes
second?)

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@g...>
Watch the Reply-To!
--- End forwarded message ---