독일어와 영어의 명사곡용어미와 인도유럽어의 기반

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss on following three issues. The one is with the case, how the nominal case endings of German and English are historically developed from those of the old languages, namely Old High German, Old English, and Gothic. The second is to explore the origin of the endings of the old languages on the base of much older other Indo-European languages than the three Germanic languages. The last concerns finding main causes, which has resulted in the dialectal difference between today's German and English. To achieve these purposes will be in this paper used as explaining-tools on the one hand Phonological Processes, such as Anfangsbetonung( = first-syllable-accentuation), Auslautsgesetz(= Syncope or Apocope)， and Vokalschwächung (= weakening of vowel), on the other Morphological Processes like analogy, for example Leveling, Analogical Extension, and Morphological Reinterpretation. The true case-endings in the declination paradigm of German, refer to only the genitive -es in the singular and the nominative -e with or without Umlaut (= vowel mutation) and the dative -n in the plural, whereas those in that of English only the first two cases, -ä5 and -5. It has been generally said, that the endings have been inherited from Proto-Indo-European，with undergoing the various phonological and morphological processes. On the other hand, other unmarked cases, including the nominative and accusative in the singular etc., have been processed as results of the language changes, which happened for the first time in the period of Germanic.