word-final "-am" in the Iranian branch

[George Thompson]

Well, if you were to take a look at Avestan and Old Persian, you would find
word-final -Em [in Avestan*] or -am [in Old Persian] at the same places
where you would find word final -am in Sanskrit. Thus:

acc. sg. of masc. -a stems
nom. /acc. sg. of neut. -a stems
ditto of consonant stems
ditto of present participles
in personal pronouns and in demonstrative pronouns
1st pers sg. of secondary endings of verbs

etc.

* [note that capital E here stands for inverted e, schwa, which represents
the regular Avestan phonological realization of inherited -a before m and n]

Hope that helps,

GT

At 11:29 AM 6/15/1999 -0700, you wrote:
>Is the final -am as common in the Iranian branch as it is in Skt.?
>
>
>Regards
>Chandra
>>...............
>> >
>> > Yes, but Sanskrit is an Indian language.  Maybe it would be more
>> > relevant if -am was a common ending for IE nouns.
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