case-marking
I’m sure we’ve been over this… but I can’t remember why case-marking was essentially lost in English and replaced with strict word order.  Why?
ENGL 85 History of the English Language Spring 2008
I’m sure we’ve been over this… but I can’t remember why case-marking was essentially lost in English and replaced with strict word order.  Why?
sean wrote:
See our earlier conversations on contact between ON and OE, and the general trend toward the loss of inflections in OE. There is a phonological explanation: the tendency to lose distinctions in unstressed syllables (generally endings). This is a process known as leveling.
Posted 19 Feb 2008 at 10:00 pm ¶