Gk gen plural

[Steve Gustafson]

petegray wrote:

> Does anyone happen to know if there is any actual evidence for the genitive
> plural ending -a:so:m in Greek, rather than the normal -a:o:n and its
> derivatives?

> If not, what basis is there for the assumption that this ending was imported
> from the pronouns?  Can't the attested forms be derived (with the help of
> paradigmatic analogy) from an original -ah2-om?  Mycenaean seems to show no
> sign of the -s-.

Wouldn't they both end up the same, in that -a:so:m turns into -a:ho:m with
the typical Greek loss of intervocalic -s-; then Greek loses the -h-, and
turns final -m to -n, to yield -a:o:n?

I don't believe that the Linear B material preserves any intervocalic *s
that would have been lost in Greek.  There is a Linear B ko-to-na-o (Gk.
ktoina:o:n) identifiable as a genitive plural, but given the severe
limitations of the script it there is no reason to say it doesn't just
represent the mainstream attested form.

In Latin (and Italic generally), -a:som is borrowed from its proper place in
the pronouns to yield -arum (Oscan -azum).  I'm not sure in what
circumstances in Greek you could expect to see a difference between the
result of -aso:m and -aH2o:m.

--
   Cain:  Are ye happy?
   Satan:  We are mighty.
                                 --- Byron, "Cain"