The Ossetic Case System Revisited
La déclinaison de l'ossète revisitée
Résumé
The Ossetic case system has attracted some attention from Iranists, as it is the most elaborate of all declensional patterns found in any modern Iranian language. But this is quite deceptive, some of the endings are clearly not old: the adessive goes back to the postpositional use of *upari, whereas the comitative -imae is attested solely in Iron. Scholars in the past, notably Vsevolod Miller, and present, such as Dieter Weber, Roland Bielmeier, Alain Christol and Fridrik Thordarson attributed most (oblique) Ossetic endings to endings of various Plr. nominal classes.