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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Dear Peter,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Thank you for the Georgian data – this is something I didn't know and looks very interesting indeed. In the absence of other replies,
I presume that paradigms like these are not that common, though.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">The distribution of the Georgian plural form in -<i>ta</i> also makes me more precise in describing Proto-Uralic: I must add that
although the cases without plural forms are usually labeled singular forms, no one has claimed that a locative plural, for example, was zero-marked just like the nominative singular – most plural forms simply do not exist. Of course, one could imagine that
the locative would simply be a number-neutral locative case then, but this is usually not claimed either.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Best regards,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
line-height:115%;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Jussi</span></p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>Frá:</b> Peter Arkadiev <peterarkadiev@yandex.ru><br>
<b>Sent:</b> mánudagur, 28. júlí 2025 23:42<br>
<b>Til:</b> Jussi Ylikoski; Linguistic Typology<br>
<b>Efni:</b> Re: [Lingtyp] Typological plausibility of a reconstructed case system (Proto-Uralic)</font>
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<div>+ lingtyp@</div>
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<div>Dear Jussi,</div>
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<div>this is not an exact parallel, but still appears to be close: in Old Georgian (as well as in the learned register of modern Georgian, with some adjustments) the case paradigm has the following form (e.g. Schanidse, Akaki. 1982. Altgeorgisches Elementarbuch.
Teil I. Grammatik der Altgeorgischen Sprache. Aus dem Georgischen von Heinz Fähnrich. Tbilissi: Tbilisis universit’et’is gamomcemloba, S. 36):</div>
<div> Sg Pl</div>
<div>Nominative -i -n-i</div>
<div>Ergative -man -ta</div>
<div>Dative -s(a) -ta</div>
<div>Genitive -is(a) -ta</div>
<div>Aditive -isa -ta</div>
<div>Instrumental -it(a) -ta</div>
<div>Adverbial -(a)d -ta</div>
<div>Vocative -o -n-o</div>
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<div>Thus a single undifferentiated form for most of the plural cases.</div>
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<div>Best regards,</div>
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<div>Peter</div>
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<div>----------------</div>
<div>Кому: lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org (lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org);</div>
<div>Тема: [Lingtyp] Typological plausibility of a reconstructed case system (Proto-Uralic);</div>
<div>28.07.2025, 21:40, "Jussi Ylikoski via Lingtyp" <lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org>:</div>
<blockquote>
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<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Dear colleagues,</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%"> </span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">I am looking for an attested real-life analogue to the noun inflection paradigm conventionally reconstructed
for Proto-Uralic.</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><br>
<span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Although the exact number of Proto-Uralic cases varies, one of the most commonly accepted truths about the reconstructed case system is that although the nouns were inflected
in 6–8 cases in singular, there were only two forms in plural – the nominative plural in *-<em>t</em> and the accusative-cum-genitive plural in *-<em>j</em> (comprising the functions of the accusative and genitive singular):</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"> </p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%"> Singular Plural</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Nominative *-Ø *-t</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Accusative *-m *-<strong>j</strong></span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Genitive *-n *-<strong>j</strong></span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Locative *-nA –</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Ablative *-tA –</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Lative *-ŋ –</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">----------------------------</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">?Translative *-ksi –</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'courier new'; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">?Caritive *-ktAk –</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%"> </span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">There might also have been a dual number in Proto-Uralic, although such forms can hardly be reconstructed,
but my main question today is about the naturalness or plausibility of a case system seen above: Do you know any real-life case paradigms that would make the above reconstruction typologically plausible? I am especially interested about the plausibility of
the accusative-genitive plural *-<em>j</em> within a case system like this.</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%"> </span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Best regards,</span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%"> </span></p>
<p style="line-height:115%; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:0"><span lang="FI" style="font-family:'tahoma' ,sans-serif; font-size:10pt; line-height:115%">Jussi</span></p>
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</blockquote>
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<div>-- </div>
<div>Peter Arkadiev, PhD Habil.</div>
<div>https://peterarkadiev.github.io/</div>
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