Ossetic nominal inflection

Between morphology and syntax

Abstract

Ossetic, an Iranian language spoken in the Caucasus, has a system of eight cases that are mostly formed in an agglutinating fashion, with the possibility of suspended affixation. This system has a number of additional unconventional features, including inflectional irregularities in pronouns, complex stem allomorphy and syncretism patterns and the use of oblique forms as nonfinal conjuncts. In this paper, we review prior accounts of Ossetic case inflection and propose a novel LrFG analysis that we claim allows capturing the relevant facts in a more regular and straighforward manner.