Do accusative ‘me’ and ‘thee’ have final /m/ (or evidence of a lost or altered /m/), by analogy with (non-neuter) nouns, in any Indo-European language?
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Absolutely. Some languages, most well-known them Sanskrit अहम ahám and त्वम tvám even went so far as to analogically add an m to the nominative form as well (at least in tvám – the m in ahám is probably something else).– Janus Bahs JacquetFeb 19, 2022 at 20:13
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(… “most well-known among them”, of course)– Janus Bahs JacquetFeb 20, 2022 at 10:11
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1 Answer
"me" and "thee" never had a final "m". The Proto Indoeuropean accusative forms were simply "hme" and "te". (Different reconstructions see here)
In Latin, the vowel was lengthened: mē, tē. Indoiranian added an "m". Proto Germanic added a "k" in the accusative case, a "z" in the dative case.
The source of the final "k" is either from the particle "ge" which still existed in Ancient Greek, or comes from the nominative "heg" (Proto-Germanic ik, German ich, Enlish I).
The modern English forms "me/thee", however, might rather derive from the dative forms "miz/þiz" which the odd ending "z". The Proto Indoeuropean Dative was "tebhi/toi" or something like this. The Germanic formation is unique here.
See here.
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2This doesn’t actually answer the question asked, except in the one brief note that IIr. added an -m (which makes the answer “yes”). I think you may have misread the question. Apr 9, 2022 at 17:54
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I misread the question the same way: I thought the question was about the English words me and thee. Apr 9, 2022 at 18:16