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A sociolinguistically informed solution to an old historical problem: the Gothic genitive plural
Author(s) -
Ringe Don
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
transactions of the philological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-968X
pISSN - 0079-1636
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-968x.2006.00171.x
Subject(s) - plural , etymology , genitive case , suffix , linguistics , variation (astronomy) , history , morpheme , philosophy , literature , art , noun , physics , astrophysics
The Gothic gen. pl. in ‐ ē has no clear etymological source, and its origin has been a matter of controversy for well over a century. This paper proposes a new solution to that problem that makes use of what modern linguists have learned about variation and change in speech communities. It will also be necessary to consider the origin of the Germanic weak past tense suffix, the etymology of ‘did’, and a largely unrecognized Auslautgesetz .