On the Uralic (*)m-Accusative
On the Uralic (*)m-Accusative

Summary/Abstract: A language universal supposed by L. Palmaitis is worded as follows: "In those systems where the special form of accusative is attested, the category of gender does exist." A. P. Volodin groups Uralic languages with those that are known as being of an accusativeless structure: Uralic languages are accusativeless because in those languages there is no individual case form for a direct object (thus in the case of an object the (*)m-suffixe expresses its unmarkedness/markedness, indefiniteness/definiteness). If Uralic languages lack the category of grammatical gender (and there is no doubt about its lacking), then it does not make sense to look for an actual grammatical accusative case in them. We would consider the incidence of the Samoyedic common object suffix (*)-m as very old in Samoyedic languages, as a primary phenomenon, so to say.

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