On the East Iranian Genitive Plural Ending

Abstract The Khotanese and Sogdian genitive plural endings cannot be satisfactorily explained from the traditionally posited ending *-nām. Instead, Khotanese -nu and Sogdian -nw point to *-nam. Instead of assuming a special rule that shortens the expected *-nām to *-nam, it is argued that the evidence from East Iranian is to be taken at face value. A short ending *-om can be reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European as well and the East Iranian reflexes of a short ending are probably an archaism.