Second plural r-endings in older Danish and Norwegian

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Abstract

The unique second plural imperative ending -er (-ær) in older Danish has been previously explained by Krogh (1995) as enclisis of the plural pronoun *īʀ and of common origin to the Old Norwegian second plural ending -ir, used in all moods. The present article explains the latter as the result of proportional analogy with the dual pronoun (þ)it > (b=þ)ið whereas the enclisis hypothesis is still the best explanation for the former. Synchronically, the Dan- ish ending functions to differentiate the plural from the singular in the imperative mood.
Original languageEnglish
JournalDanske Studier
Pages (from-to)180-187
Number of pages8
ISSN0106-4525
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Danish
  • Old Danish
  • Norwegian
  • Dalecarlian
  • Morphology

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