An der Schnittstelle von Morphologie und Syntax. Einheitsformen der Personalpronomen der 1. und 2. Person Plural im Nordbairischen

In German, pronominal inflection is more distinctive than noun inflection. Despite all tendencies towards syncretism, the specific exponents of the nominative case in the first and second person pronouns have been generally retained both in the standard language and in the dialects. However, in several areas, this distinction has ceased to exist and has given way to a single form for the first and second-person plural in which case is no longer marked. The present article examines forms of this kind in the transitional area between East Franconian and Northern Bavarian. We find that these forms occur when the loss of case marking in pronominal inflection is compensated for by an unambiguous indication of person in verbal inflection. The generalized form ENK(S) in the second-person plural occurs in dialects with -TS as the verbal suffix of the second-personal plural. Distinction of case in the second-person plural is retained in dialects with the verbal suffix -T, because -T is also the verbal suffix of the third-person singular and hence there are several cases in which syncretism prevails in the verbal paradigm (as in the word form mäht from the verb mähen ‘to mow’). Since -N is the verbal suffix of the first and third-person plural (as in mähen), there is no development of a generalized first person plural form in the region under investigation. These results illustrate the fundamental link between morphology and syntax.