Middle Indo-Aryan Ablative and Locative Markers in Romani

Abstract

AbstractThe paper inquires into the origin of Romani ablative and locative markers against the background of the Middle Indo-Aryan development. It shows that there are no overt reflexes of the old thematic locative ending -e in Romani, although several zero-marked adpositions and adverbs are reflexes of the forms in -e. The paper argues for the origin of Romani -e in the late MIA locative -ahim, and of Romani -al in the Śaurasenī ablative -ādo. A degree of adverbial productivity of both suffixes is also dealt with. Then the paper analyses the nominal locative and ablative markers -te and -tar respectively, which derive from postpositions. The initial consonant of both suffixes is proposed to reflect their common ancestor in the pronominal base t-, whereas the final segments -e and -ar are argued to be remnants of inflectional affixes related to -e and -al respectively.