Collapse and Reorganization of the Latin Nominal Flection as Reflected in Epigraphic Sources (PDF)

1.13 Dative (p. 13)

In the two areas under investigation, this case, spelled -ae or -e, was found to be quite well preserved. A few deviations were observed, however, as follows:

(a) -a for -ae (-e): On an otherwise garbled inscription from Pannonia Inferior, there is a hint of a dative in -a: Aul Quintillae . . . et Aul Quintina soror . . . hanc memoriam /erif(D3611adn.)

Stati (1961a:75) reports a few such datives in -a from an extensive area of the Balkans. In contrast to similar attestations on a few epitaphs from Southern Italy dating back to Republican times which he considers to be archaic or dialectal phenomena, he concludes that these dative forms in -a—just as the genitives in -a reported supra under 1.12 (c)—"sint rezultatul acjiunii legii reducerii flexiunii nominale si reprezinta forma de caz general."

(b) -aes for -ae (-e): Assuming that phrases like piscina Fl. Regulaes or Valeriaes are, indeed, dativi adnaminales (cf. supra, 1.12 [d]), the formal identity of genitive/dative in the first declension singular would account for this deviation.

(c) Periphrastic dative construction with `ad`: To quote Mihaescu (1978:244): "Afin d`exprimer le rapport resultant de 1`emploi du datif a cote de la forme synthetique, on avait recours aussi a la construction analytique avec la preposition ad, qui s`est conservee dans le roumain."

To illustrate his point, the Rumanian scholar cites a few examples from inscriptions and other Latin texts from all parts of the Roman Empire, none of them dated, unfortunately.

It is generally acknowledged that in its indirect object function the synthetic dative was encroached upon by an ad + accusative construction early in the history of Latin and that, except for Rumanian, it completely eliminated the Classical Latin dative probably by the eighth century of our era.

This periphrasis seems to be implicit on an epitaph from Pannonia Inferior which, in part, reads as follows: titulum posuit ad

Dieses eBook können Sie uneingeschränkt auf allen Geräten der tolino Familie lesen. Zum Lesen auf sonstigen eReadern und am PC benötigen Sie eine Adobe ID.