Hi!
"J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...> writes:
>..
> > m f n
> > nom tveir tvær tvö
> > acc tvo tvær tvö
> > ...
>
> I didn't know there were indoeuropean languages with a distinct accusative
> form!
Icelandic has a *lot* of forms! :-)))
> As to German _zwo_, I rather believe that it originally was a feminine
> form, as is indicated somewhere in the Duden grammar (...),
Ah, then the Icelandic was possibly blinding me. I don't know much
about sound shifts and how German got to its forms, actually.
> preserved in certain dialects, e.g. conservative Bernese German: _zwe Manne_
> /tsv\e 'man:@/ (two men), _zwo Froue_ /tsv\o 'frouw@/ (two women), _zwöi
> Ching_ /tsv\2i XIN:/ (two children).
Oh! That's nice. I did not know there were dialects of German that
retained this!
**Henrik