Rara #49

Legacy number: 49

 Number  49
 Phenomenon  an extra-large case inventory, of above 20 cases
 Found in  Hungarian (Ugric, Uralic) (?)
 Domain  morphology: inflection — complexity
 Type  rarissimum
 Keywords  case
 Source  Plank, Frans (1986). Paradigm size, morphological typology, and universal economy. Folia Linguistica 20: 29-48.
 Violates  none

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Discussion
Notes
Hungarian has variously been analysed as having 16, 18, 21, 23, or 27 cases. For those Daghestanian (North-East Caucasian) languages that have gone on record, indeed the Guinness Book of Records, as having far more cases ? 47 in Tabasaran, 126 in Tsez ? these high numbers are greatly exaggerated: they result from not more than a dozen cases proper being combined with locational and directional markers. See Comrie & Polinsky 1998 and Kibrik 2002. Comrie, Bernard & Maria Polinsky (1998). The great Daghestanian case hoax. In Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song (eds.), Case, Typology, and Grammar, 95-114. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Kibrik, Aleksandr E. (2002). Nominal inflection galore: Daghestanian, with side glances at Europe and the world. In: Frans Plank (ed.), Noun Phrase Structure in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Comment
Frans Plank · 21 Sep 2006
Hungarian has variously been analysed as having 16, 18, 21, 23, or 27 cases.

For those Daghestanian (North-East Caucasian) languages that have gone on record, indeed the Guinness Book of Records, as having far more cases – 47 in Tabasaran, 126 in Tsez – these high numbers are greatly exaggerated: they result from not more than a dozen cases proper being combined with locational and directional markers. See Comrie & Polinsky 1998 and Kibrik 2002.

Comrie, Bernard & Maria Polinsky (1998). The great Daghestanian case hoax. In Anna Siewierska & Jae Jung Song (eds.), Case, Typology, and Grammar, 95-114. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kibrik, Aleksandr E. (2002). Nominal inflection galore: Daghestanian, with side glances at Europe and the world. In: Frans Plank (ed.), Noun Phrase Structure in the Languages of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.