Dative Pronouns

[Richard Hogg]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
On 20 Jul 98 at 7:01, Claire Bowern wrote:
 
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Does anyone know of a language where a dative pronoun becomes the
> nominative? I'm not really interested in languages where the dative and
> accusative fall together, and then that case becomes "nominative". I have
> an example from Pitta-Pitta (Pama-Nyungan) where the orginal 1sg dative
> *ngantya turns up as nominative, a new dative stem is invented and
> accusative is basically unaffected. I believe something similar happened in
> Frisian but I would like some more examples if possible.
>
The intended Frisian reference may be to the 2nd pers. plural form
jimme, which Markey 1981: 188 ("Frisian", Mouton) is a starting
point (but no more than a starting point).
 
Also of possible interest is the English phenomenon called "pronoun
exchange" by the late Ossi Ihalainen, which gives sentences such as:
        Her (SUBJ) told I (OBJ)
Such forms are traceable throughout western England and in a few
varieties living forms remain even in this decade. See Ihalainen in
Cambridge History Vol. 5 pp.230-1, together with a number of his
articles on Somerset and West Country dialect. As Ihalainen points
out, it is probable that "you" is the descendant of the old
accusative/dative pronoun, which replaced nominative "ye" under
complex circumstances.
 
Richard Hogg
 
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