[Ads-l] Loss of the English dative "home"? / "Exit out of"

[Wilson Gray]

On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 8:40 AM, guy1656 at centurylink.net <
guy1656 at centurylink.net> wrote:

> Isn't "whom" and it's derived words all we have left of the dative in
> English?
>
> Related question: Do 'hence, hither, whence, and whither' still mark
> accusative (if they ever did?)
>

"Him," "them," and " 'em" are also historical datives. In the Slavic
languages, this -m still marks the dative.

I'm reasonably sure that -ce/-s - cf. "towards"; the -s/-0 alternation goes
back to Old English - and -er marked separate cases, historically. What
they were, precisely, I don't know. WAG: -ce/-s is genitive, -er is
accusative or, perhaps, dative or locative.

Google only knows.
-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.

-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org