Tamil Case Inventory

@cite{blake-1994}

Tamil (Dravidian) has 8 cases with agglutinative suffixes: NOM (∅), ACC (-ai), DAT (-ukku), GEN (-in / -uṭaiya), LOC (-il), ABL (-ilirundu), INST / COM (-āl / -ōṭu), VOC (-ē).

The instrumental and comitative are sometimes syncretic (-ōṭu covers both functions), a pattern documented cross-linguistically (@cite{blake-1994}; WALS Ch. 52).

def Fragments.Tamil.Case.caseInventory : Finset Core.Case

Tamil 7-case core inventory (excluding VOC).

Equations

• Fragments.Tamil.Case.caseInventory = {UD.Case.nom, UD.Case.acc, UD.Case.gen, UD.Case.dat, UD.Case.loc, UD.Case.abl, UD.Case.inst, UD.Case.com}

def Fragments.Tamil.Case.tamilComInstSync : Core.Case.Allomorphy.Syncretism

Tamil COM/INST syncretism (-ōṭu covers both functions). Uses the cross-linguistic pattern from Core.Case.Allomorphy.

Equations

• Fragments.Tamil.Case.tamilComInstSync = Core.Case.Allomorphy.comInstSyncretism

theorem Fragments.Tamil.Case.com_inst_adjacent : Core.Case.Allomorphy.HierarchyAdjacent UD.Case.com UD.Case.inst

COM/INST are strictly adjacent (ranks 1, 2).