Path: ...!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Aidan Kehoe Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,sci.lang Subject: Re: Somewheres Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2024 07:41:54 +0100 Lines: 25 Message-ID: <87frqemwjx.fsf@parhasard.net> References: <413fad492ea5f969e1cb56bf570b6c49@www.novabbs.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net WDYheB0FL1DnCA+F+Nx6yAu/2alFyJJJRq6lpsbVZsebrLm7LT Cancel-Lock: sha1:WOLs1ugZmmOQV2Xu/IQziY/3avw= sha1:E7mqu15o3hLi+RiznZZVzqLyFVw= sha256:Yhpoosnlz0vmj6VA7iYlfs5CocrlACiQ8uTD1VmH9yQ= User-Agent: Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64) Bytes: 2354 Ar an cúigiú lá de mí Méan Fómhair, scríobh Bertel Lund Hansen: > Christian Weisgerber wrote: > > > Also, endings can be lost in specific grammatical contexts while > > persisting elsewhere. Since the reduction of vowels in final > > syllables to [ə] between Old and Middle High German, there hasn't > > been a general change affecting endings in German, I think. However, > > people who studied German as a foreign language are probably very > > aware of the masculine/neuter singular strong dative -e, e.g. "mit > > dem Kind(e)". > > I don't know if I *studied* German when learning it in school and later > reading in d.e.s.d, but until now I didn't know about that dative form. > I don't think that I have met it in songs either. Mark Twain comments on it so it may be that explicit mention of it is more familiar to native English speakers. I was aware of it, but I did study German fairly intensely as an adult. -- ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out / How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’ (C. Moore)