Re: VMs: excessive frequency of doubles...

[Koontz John E <John.Koontz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004, Jan wrote:
> True, for instance Slavic languages have declinations with 7 forms for
> each noun, each similar to the other and yet different (most of them,
> anyway), but I was looking more into the structure of the change than
> into pure similarity.

Six cases in Russian, right?  In two numbers, not counting relict duals.
But, as usual in an Indo-European case system, a certain number of
coincidences in form across the matrix.  And the accusative is a bit of an
artificiality in Russian, since it matches the nominative or genitive,
depending on animacy (inanimate or animate).  I suppose the Proto-Slavic
accusative has fallen together with one or the other, too, just to make
things interesting?

______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying:
unsubscribe vms-list