The Old Aramaic "Feminine" Suffix-t as an Accusative Case Marker

A small number of Old Aramaic words attest a spelling of the inherited "feminine" suffixes as -t . Strikingly, all of these words occur in syntactic contexts where Proto- Semitic would use the accusative case. Wherever the nominative or genitive case is expected instead, the "feminine" suffix is not spelled with -t . This includes several forms that are here argued to showcase a development of the "feminine" plural ending * -& aring;t- into * -& aring; , spelled -h in the Sefire inscriptions and left unspelled in the Tell Fekheriye inscription. This identification of -h and zero as spelling the "feminine" plural suffix provides us with enough evidence to establish the syntactic conditioning of - t in accusative contexts vs. - h or zero in other contexts. The retention of t in the accusative follows naturally from the longer retention of word-final * -a in Proto-Aramaic compared to * -u and * -i , which is supported by morphological developments in the verb. Together with the plene spelling of the "masculine" plural ending as - wn in nominative contexts and as -yn elsewhere in the Tell Fekheriye inscription, the identification of a separate accusative form of the "feminine" suffixes shows that Old Aramaic retained a partial contrast between the three Proto-Semitic cases. Later on, this case distinction was lost, while accusative forms in - t became lexicalized adverbs.