XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: kehoea@parhasard.net   
      
    Ar an cúigiú lá de mí Méan Fómhair, scríobh Bertel Lund Hansen:   
      
    > Christian Weisgerber wrote:   
    >   
    > > Also, endings can be lost in specific grammatical contexts while   
    > > persisting elsewhere.  Since the reduction of vowels in final   
    > > syllables to [ə] between Old and Middle High German, there hasn't   
    > > been a general change affecting endings in German, I think.  However,   
    > > people who studied German as a foreign language are probably very   
    > > aware of the masculine/neuter singular strong dative -e, e.g. "mit   
    > > dem Kind(e)".   
    >   
    > I don't know if I *studied* German when learning it in school and later   
    > reading in d.e.s.d, but until now I didn't know about that dative form.   
    > I don't think that I have met it in songs either.   
      
   Mark Twain comments on it so it may be that explicit mention of it is more   
   familiar to native English speakers. I was aware of it, but I did study German   
   fairly intensely as an adult.   
      
   --   
   ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /   
   How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’   
   (C. Moore)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)