Genitive-Dative Syncretism in the History of the Bulgarian Language. Towards an Analysis

This article traces the diachronic phases of so-called genitive-dative syncretism in Old\ud Bulgarian, a phenomenon which marks the beginning of the disintegration of the Case\ud system in the history of the language. The research, based on a corpus study (comprising the texts of\ud Codex Marianus, Codex Zographensis and Codex Suprasliensis), identifies a specific construction, namely the External Possessive construction, also known as dativus sympatheticus, as the main trigger for the genitive-dative syncretism, Additionally, it is demonstrated that influence from Greek has played an important though not a crucial role in the process leading to the emergence of possessive datives