Re: Language Change

>From: John Cowan <jcowan@...>
>Patrick Dunn wrote:
>
> > I was unaware that languages could gain cases; I was always under the
> > impression that languages tended to simplify, but now I see that
>"simple"
> > is subjective, isn't it?  Hmm.
>
>Sure.  The Finno-Ugric langs, with their 12-20 cases, descend from
>languages
>with postpositions and far fewer cases.  Sometimes the line between a
>case marker and a pre/postposition is hard to draw.
A now-extinct Indo-European language, Tocharian, had nine or ten cases, with
possible influence from Altaic or Uralic languages.  Vlach Romany has eight
cases, but not the way Sanskrit does; it uses postpositions like Hungarian
would.

Also, some recent IE-ists say that the eight-case system of Sanskrit isn't
an originality, but an innovation, citing pauciticy of cases in Hittite,
Celtic, Armenian etc.

Danny
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