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

[Frank Rossi]

 MCV wrote:

> It was rather the accusative forms that survived

... in Western Romance languages

In this connection, I recently read that in the early North Italian and
Rhaeto-Romance dialects, like Old French and Old Provencal, there was a two
case declination (nominative and accusative). With the collapse of this
two-case system, the accusative forms usually became generalised in the
singular (e.g., mort, caval), while in the masculine plural there was a
long struggle between the two variants. The Gallo-Italic and Venetian
dialects opted for the nominative plurals (e.g., morti, cavai), possibly
under the influence of Tuscan, while Romantsch and Ladin in Switzerland
opted for the accusative (e.g. morts, cavals), and Dolomitic Ladin and
Friulan opted for a compromise solution (.e.g., muarts, cavai).

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.

Frank Rossi
Bergamo, Italy
iglesias at axia.it