German manuals

The genitive case in German is slowly being replaced by the dative case, accompanied by the usual lamentations from grammar purists. So some of the 1962 examples might be considered old-fashioned today. But they would still be understood.

Tonyk, can you exlain what you mean by 'the genitive is slowly being replaced by the dative' ?
Maybe after the few prepositions that traditionally took the genitive, such as wegen, eg
- wegen mir intead of wegen meiner
- wegen dem Mann instead of wegen des Mannes
but in its primary usage as the possessive case, I don't see the genitive giving any ground at all.

If you're looking for archaic usages, I would suggest the added -e in masculine/neuter dative singulars, such as 'dem Lande' instead of 'dem Land' - it used to be taught as standard, but now has a rather archaic or literary flavour.

Tonyk, can you exlain what you mean by 'the genitive is slowly being replaced by the dative' ?

See the 'Genitive' paragraph in this Wikipedia article.

Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod. Good title.

But I'm going to quibble with this (from TonyK's wikipedia article):

In at least one context, the use of a dative construction to indicate possession is standard. Usually with respect to a person's body, mind, or personality, one can say, for example, "Sie gab ihm die Hand", which translates literally to "She gave him the hand". In English, this would always be rendered as "She gave him her hand.

ihm there doesn't indicate possession of the hand: it's not his hand it's hers. The definite article instead of a possessive in that sort of sentence is standard in French and Italian too. For example: La ci darem la mano. (Recitative until 2:40.)

You're quite right Vinny -- the writer's example is wrong. But there is a relevant construction in German, which the writer presumably intended: 'Sie biss ihm die Hand', 'She bit his hand'.

#9, when was that?

#15 -- Not quite two years ago.

Interestingly, this Wiki article suggests English does not have a proper genitive case+ ...but rather, +a possessive ending, -’s

And here , it's suggested that in English, the accusative and dative pronouns merged into a single objective pronoun used in both roles...+ ....and that +the dative case is no longer a part of modern English usage.

Is, in fact, the German language heading in this direction, or are the grammar "experts" (to use a neutral term) in Germany sufficiently empowered to stop this?

#16, wow I wonder if felt you were condescending....

#17, I doubt the language purists wuold let that happen.

Now I've got a question about dative dem Lande - is the -e ending having just a literary use more formal or purely poetic? Can it be used in a business/economic text or would it be archaic?