Using Dictionaries (was Re: Greek question (night?))

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

"Frank Rossi" <iglesias at axia.it> wrote:

>There is also a parallel in the Provencal dialect of Occitan, with the
>creation of a plural ending -ei or -i for pronouns and adjectives:

>i for als, di for dels or de las, polidi(s) for polidas.

>However, these developments in Provencal apparently took place much later.

But Occitan and French hung on to the nominative case longer than
other West Romance languages (from memory, "(h)alt sunt li pui"
in the Chanson de Roland, with nom. pl. in -i).

There is also a theory [which I do not subscribe to], that the
Italian plurals in -i and -e are also accusatives, resulting from
a development -s > -i (undeniable in monosyllables like noi <
nos, voi < vos, crai < cras, poi < pos(t), sei < sex, dai < das,
stai < stas, etc.) and further reduction of unstressed -oi, -ei >
-i and -ai > -e [but apparently -i in 2sg. canti "you sing"].
One might further object that if this were true, we'd expect It.
*andiami instead of <andiamo> (< *-mos < -mus).

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam