Introduction

How many cases were there in Proto-Germanic (PG)? This question may most probably never be answered with certainty, as our knowledge of the language relies solely on linguistic reconstruction. However, it seems that we should be able to say relatively much about Proto-Germanic, as the comparative grammar of its daughter languages, the various Germanic dialects, has been studied extremely thoroughly in the course of the development of historical linguistics. Therefore, despite the fact that the question is not crucial, in this paper, I will attempt to establish the most probable answer.

The notion of Proto-Germanic is by no means unambiguous; in fact, the term may be used in reference to any stage of linguistic development later than Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and earlier than the rise of the distinct Germanic dialects. As regards the case system, it is quite certain that numerous processes must have taken place during this lengthy period. The aim is, therefore, to determine the number of grammatical cases in the final stage of the development of Proto-Germanic, i.e., the latest reconstructable stage from which all the attested Germanic languages may be derived. This implies that if a particular value of the category of case is not found in any of the attested dialects and no indications exist that it may have been part of the case system in the proto–language, it is assumed that it was not.

The Germanic case system: evidence from outside Old English

The attested Germanic dialects immediately point to the existence of at least six cases in PG: nominative ([N]), vocative ([V]), accusative ([AC]), genitive ([G]), dative ([D]), and instrumental ([I]) (Krahe 1942: 7, Bammesberger 1990: 12).