On Adaptation of Suffixes in Congeneric Classes of Substantives 9781463221638

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On Adaptation of Suffixes in Congeneric Classes of Substantives

A n a l e c t a Gorgiana

303 Series Editor George Kiraz

Analecta Gorgiana is a collection of long essays and

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On Adaptation of Suffixes in Congeneric Classes of Substantives

Maurice Bloomfield

i gorgia* press 2009

Gorgias Press LLC, 180 Centennial Ave., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA www.gorgiaspress.com Copyright © 2009 by Gorgias Press LLC Originally published in All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. 2009

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ISBN 978-1-60724-565-0

ISSN 1935-6854

Extract from The A^merican Journal of Philology, vol. 12 (1891).

Printed in the LTnited States of America

AMERICAN

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NO. 45.

I — O N A D A P T A T I O N O F S U F F I X E S IN C O N G E N E R I C CLASSES OF SUBSTANTIVES. The term adaptation is used here to designate the infusion with some definite grammatical or lexical value, of a formal element originally either devoid of any special functional value, or possessed of a value which has faded out so completely as to make this infusion possible. Thus in English sing, sang, sung-, German werde, ward, (ge-~)worden the different vowels are felt to be the carriers of the tense-distinction. Here the association of the vocalic variations with temporal distinctions is a comparatively recent development: the variation (ablaut) is due to phonetic causes, very largely differences in accentuation, which had no direct connection with temporal distinctions. But with the decay of the inflectional elements which did convey the distinctions of tense, the vowel of each form was associated more and more with the special vocalic color of the root, until in modern English radical i is to all intents and purposes the significant vowel of the present, a of the imperfect, and u of the perfect passive participle. It is as though Homeric bipRofiai,fie'Sop™,ZSpaKov had in the later development of Greek speech become subject to a phonetic corruption which stripped them of personal inflections, reduplication and augment resulting in pres. *8epK, perf. *8pK, aor. *8paK, and e, o, a would then be felt as the respective causes of the varying tense-values. A n instance in which the grammatical value of a form has faded out so completely as to permit its infusion with a new value, originally altogether foreign to it, is the use of the element -mini in Latin as the personal inflection of the second plur. passive. Lat. legimini (sc. estis) is = \eyo-pevoi, nom. plur. masc. VOL. XII.—1.

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of the middle-passive participle. After this form had been woven into the paradigm of the present passive its origin was entirely forgotten ; it was felt to be a personal inflection, and was then extended throughout the passive system, yielding legebämini, legemini, legämini and legeremini, thus succeeding in adapting the form -mini completely to the use of an ordinary personal inflection. Other cases of adaptation in modern English are contained in men,feet as the plur. of man, foot-, here the umlaut (cf. Germ. manner, füsse) has been adapted as a plural sign; in oxen as plur. of ox (Germ, der ochs, des ochsen, both singular): here the element -en- originally a nominal suffix (cf. Vedic uk§&n- ' ox Lat. stem homin- ' man') has been adapted to use as a sign of the plural. Cf. in general Paul, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte2, p. 172; Delbrück, Einleitung in das Sprachstudium 1 , pp. 66 fg. (where Ludwig's theory and writings on adaptation are quoted and discussed), 96 fg.; Windisch, Personalendungen im Griechischen und Sanskrit, Transactions of the Royal Saxon Academy, March 2, 1889, pp. 7 fg. 1 . T h e © r e e k N o m i n a t i v e jrotic. An ancient riddle of Greek grammar is the Ionic-Attic nominative 7rovs, gen. woS-os. A more original nominative in Greek appears in Doric n-Ss, preserved in the gloss of Hesychius, m»«- 1 • n6s. ino Aaptemv (cf. also his Other gloss 71¿p • JTOVS. Acuewcr). The diphthong ou of TTOVS cannot hail from proethnic times, as the related languages have only monophthongs: e in Latin pes (*ped-s) and com-pes ; ö in Doric n-äs-, Lat. com-pds — com-pes in Priscian i. p. 26 H, Gothic /^/-?«, nom. plur. Old Norse *föt-ir in föetr (umlaut) ; petur-purs-us ö in TTOS-OS, Lat. tri-pod-ätus; Umbrian du-purs-us, ' bipedibus, quadrupedibus ' (Iguvinian tablets vi. b) ; e in ped-is, we(a (*ire8-ia), etc.; reduced root pd- in Zend fra-bd-a- 'fore-foot.' Nowhere is there an opening for an original Greek diphthong ou = I. E. ou or ¿u f the stem evidently belongs to the so-called s-0-series. As a special Greek phonetic development, Attic oxytone TTovs could stand only for *ff0Vs (cf. Cretan i-oVr = Attic Tois) 1 For the accent of this form see the author in A. J . P. I X 1 5 ; Brugmann, Griechische Grammatik 2 , §74. 2 S k . päd, gen. pad-ds; ZendpffS-em and pa&ebyö exhibit the same relations of quantity as appears in the European languages : the qualitative relation has disappeared. But there is no diphthong.

ADAPTATION

OF

SUFFIXES.

3

or *IRÓVRS like the participle Sous for *8¿-VT-S. For these there is no basis. Various attempts have been made to explain the form, some in recent years, e. g. by Joh. Schmidt in K Z . xxv. 16, and Solmsen ibid. xxix. 358, note. I regard them as unsatisfactory and omit their refutation. G. Meyer, Griech. Gramm.2 §313, says : ' Attisch TTovs jedenfalls eine Neubildung ist bisher unerklärt.' Very recently Brugmann, Grundriss ii. 450; Griechische Grammatik®, §74, is of the same opinion. I believe that Attic-Ionic nom. novs f o o t is made in direct imitation of Pan-Hellenic ¿Sois tooth, 1 the point of contact being the meaning: both are parts of the body. Designations of parts of the body exercise strong analogical influence upon one another, and occasionally the suffix of some one of them succeeds in adapting itself so as to be felt the characteristic element which bestows upon the word its value. That is to say, when such a suffix has spread analogically to a greater or lesser extent within the category, then the meaning of the category maybe felt to be dependent upon the special form of the suffix, or, stated conversely, the suffix may be infused with the special characteristic of the category; after that, when occasion arises to form new words of this same class, the suffix is put into requisition as though it were the essential element which imparts to the word its special significance. This thesis, though stated narrowly for the present only in reference to designations of parts of the body, is sufficiently important to justify our dwelling upon it at length; it will in the end lead us to a much broader field than the one just indicated. First we shall assemble certain cases in which assimilation and adaptation has influenced designations of parts of the body. 3. Designations of parts of tbe body by heteroclitic stems in r and n. As early as I. E. times a considerable group of designations of parts of the body were formed after a peculiar heteroclitic declension. They were neuters having the casus recti in -r and the casus obliqui in -n : l i v e r : rjnap, 1771-07-0? ; Lat. jécur, jécinoris (for *jecinis\ the syllable or came in from the nominative, perhaps through the 'Aeolic íñovres is transformed by popular etymology (éda). oóáv, Hdt. vi. 1 0 7 ; Herodian ii. 928, 1 1 , is the result of proportional analogy: ióóvres : ióáv — ódóvreg : x, i. e. oóáv.

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channel of the genitive jecoris, which in turn was made upon the base of the nom.; cf. über-is below) ; Sk. yäkrt, yaknds; Zend yäkare (Zend-Pehlevi glossary: the oblique «-stem does not occur); Lith. jekn-os, fem. plurale tantum, and jekanas (Bezzenberger, zur Geschichte der litauischen Sprache, p. 291) are based upon the «-stem, the r-stem being wanting. Through the medium of a 'ground-form ' lieqrt Joh. Schmidt, Die Pluralbildungen der indogermanischen Neutra, p. 198 fg., adds to this group the German words for ' liver,' Ohg. libera, lebera, Ags. lifer, as also Armenian leard and Old Prussian lagno. u d d e r : ovSap, ovdaros ; Sk. udhar, udhnas; Latin über, which has passed also into the oblique cases : the «-stem perhaps in Oufen-s (Festus), Ufen-s ' name of a river.' Germanic forms: Mhg. Uter, Nhg. euter, Ags. of üdrum ' uberibus,' Eng. udder exhibit the r-stem ; in Ohg. dative sg. üirin there is mixture of r- and «stems in reversed order from that which has taken place in Lat. jecinoris; see above. b l o o d : Vedic asrg (TS. dsrt), asnds, classical Sanskrit asr-a-m; Greek Zap, Epic elap=*rjap, the corresponding «-stem being lost; Lat. assir in Festus, Paul Epit. p. 1 6 ; Loewe, Prodr. 142. I.ettish asms presents the «-stem. I. E. ¿sr$ or dsr^, gen. asri-ds.1 t h i g h : femur, feminis vi ith assimilations in both directions; the nom. fernen (rare according to Priscian vi. 52) and the genitive femoris (ci. jecoris, above). w i n g : r-stem, Lat. * peter in acci-piter 5 'quick-wing, falcon'; the «-stem petn- in penna for *petn-a ' wing, feather.' The rstem further in irTcp-6-v, Ohg. federa, fedara, Ags. fefter, Sk. patr-a- ' wing, feather,' Zd. patere-ta- ' winged ' (cf. urepai-ri-s), Cymric atar 'winged.' The «-stem further in Cymric ein, Old Irish e'n ' bird.' The recent discussion of the word by Joh. Schmidt, loc. cit. pp. 173-176, seems to establish the I. E. bases pe'ir-$, gen. petn-ös in close parallelism with the word for ' blood ' above : dsri, or esr^ (cf. dap), gen. asn-o's. i n n e r b o d y , v i s c e r a , v e i n : Homeric rjrop with Aeolic op for 1 A c c o r d i n g to D e Saussure (Memoire, p. 225), L a t . san-gu-en ( E n n i u s ap. Cic.) belongs to this group, san- for (a)sn- with gu from the nom. (cf. S k . dsrg). T h e -en at the end a second time in deference to the old declension of the word in the oblique cases (Vedic asn-ds). Differently W . Schulze, K Z . xxix. 257. 5

accipiter

f o r *acu-piter

(cf. acu-pedius,

¿iKv-g) m a y b e t h e r e s u l t of p o p u l a r

etymology which associated the word with accipio ; see J o h . Schmidt, Pluralbildungen, p. 1 7 4 .

ADAPTATION

OF

SUFFIXES.

ap (Schmidt, ibid. 1 7 7 ) ' heart ' and §rp-o-v ' abdomen inn-ädiri

' v i s c e r a , ' A g s . aedre,

O l d N o r s e aeör

5 Ohg.

' vein,' O b g .

ädara, edro

' b o s o m ' (formed like rjrpov), Oir. in-atkar 'entrails.' T h e complementary w-stem is wanting, but the restriction of the declension of rjrop in H o m e r to the casus recti (dative fjTopi later, Simon. 7. 7) shows that the type was once *eter, *ttn-ds, or the like. F o r the variety of meanings cf. V e d i c hirà 'vein,' L a t . hlra 'intestine,' harü-spex ' he who inspects the entrails, soothsayer.' excrement:

O-KS>p, azuros ;

Sk.

fdkrl,

gaknàs\x

Lat.

müs-

(s)cerda, Festus 146 (thence cerda falsely clipped off for bü-cerda, etc., Schmidt, ibid. 1 7 8 ) ; Old N o r s e skarn\ O b g . skvrlna ; Lith. tu skverne ' invective against misbehaving children.' In the last three the r - and «-stems are blended ; cf. jecinoris and utrin, above. n e r v e , s i n e w , etc.: I. E . casus recti sneuer, sneur-t : casus obliqui snéun-ds, etc. Zend snävare 'sinew,' Ossetic navr 'vein,' O h g . snuor 'schnür,' Goth, snörjö 'wicker-basket,' from stem snexier. T h e stem snetprt in A r m . neard 'nerve, sinew,' H ü b s c h mann, Armenische Studien, p. 45, Nr. 2 1 7 . T h e «-stem in V e d i c snàvan 'sinew, string.' G r e e k veipo-v contains the usual extension to the 0-declension = snèuro-. F o r Latin nervu-s see Vanicek, Griechisch-Lateinisches Wörterbuch ii. p. 1 1 6 1 . g a l l : Gr. seems to be an extension of an r-stem (cf. r)p.tpa : r/pap) which is supplemented b y the w-stem contained in O h g . galla, O. Norse gall, ~Lat.fellis. T h e stems seem to have been I. E . 5holr-, tfioln-ós or 3heln-os. Cf. F r o e h d e , Bezz. Beitr. vii. 1 0 5 ; Johansson, Gött. Gel. Anz. 1890, Nr. 19, p. 766, note. m o u t h , j a w : Zend zafare, gen. zafand. T h e r-stem is occasionally extended into the oblique cases: dat. zafre', nom. plur. zafra. T h e «-stein also in pri-zafanem acc. sg. masc. 'threeheaded.' f l a t o f t h e h a n d , s o l e of t h e f o o t : divap, 6imPos (the r-stem extended through the oblique cases), ¿wio-dcvap for *òmcr6ó6evap ( h a p l o g r a p h y ) 'outer hand,' imóètvap 'palm under the thumb'; O h g . tenar,

tenra,

M h g . tener

'flat hand.'"

1 fak- for sak- b y assimilation of the dental sibilant to the guttural of the consecutive syllable ; see Bloomfield and Spieker, Proceedings of the A m e r i c a n Oriental Society for M a y , 1886, p. xl. (Journal, V o l . xiii, p. cxxi). I s L a t . coram (*cosam) from a root whose S k . equivalent is käQ — käs ' to be v i s i b l e ' ? C f . sa-ka$a ' presence,' sakaqe ' in the presence of, near,' A ? v . Gr. i. 18. 7. 2 T h e adaptation of the suffix r-n to this group extended itself also to the originally broader meaning of the word, which seems to have been ' flat

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T h e limitation of this class is not by a hard and fast line. haps

oSepo-s • yanTrjp ( H e s y c h . ) , V e d i c

udard-m

and

Per-

uddra-m

b e l l y , s t o m a c h , represent another r-stem of this class, extended by the suffix -o-. Likewise aZfyap ' wrinkled skin ' (cf. Lat. suber 'cork-tree: tree with wrinkled b a r k ' ) ; 'X^P l y m p h , i c h o r (cf. cap 'blood') and d^ap s c u r f (cf. trump 'excrement') may belong here, in part by later adaptation within Hellenic times. For the remaining stems in p in Greek see below, p. 21, note. That so large a portion of the limited group of heteroclitic nouns in r-n should have been absorbed by designations of parts of the body admits of but one explanation. The suffix, in the first place, had no intrinsic value which rendered it especially suitable for words of this kind. It was employed accidentally in some one or two such designations, and thence it was extended gradually by single acts of analogy, becoming more and more productive, until it had adapted itself in proethnic times to this special use. A s it was, it never became restricted exclusively to such use (see vSmp, vdaros and more below): neither did the entire domain of designations of parts of the body succumb to it, nor did it sharpen its own physiognomy to such an extent as to be rendered unfit for other service.

3. Designation of parts of tlie body by otber heteroclitic declensions with n«steins in the oblique cases. T h e w-stems which appear in the oblique cases of the heteroclitic declension in r-n occupy the same territory, the oblique cases, in the paradigms of certain other heteroclitic declensional types ; here also the meaning is prevailingly that of parts of the body. T h e process of adaptation which resulted in the feeling that oblique cases of »-stems, when combined with r-stems in the casus recti, were suitable for this class of nouns, appears in operation—also in proethnic times—with other stems: consonantal stems, z'-stems, i-stems: e a r : genitive OVOTOS for *OV xet/ia>», Arm. j i u n from * j i v a n = * j i m a n ; see Hiibschmann, Armenische Studien, p. 18, Nr. 1 2 ; p. 40, Nr. 178. The additional suffix with n in Arm. j m e r - n , j m e r - a n may represent the blending of the oblique «-cases with the casus recti in -r. T h e r-n suffix appears also in Arm. a m a r - n , gen. a m a r - a n s u m m e r , the stem a m a r - being = Ohg. s u m a r (cf. Ved. s&ma 'year,' Zend hama 'summer'); -r and -« are blended in this Armenian word just as in the word for w i n t e r . T h e word for n i g h t exhibits the r-stem in vvxrap, wKTep-ls, vvKTep-ivo-s, Lat. n o c t u r - n u s , Zend n a ' i t a r e in n a h t o u r u s u (Bartholomae in Bezz. Beitr. xv. 19) ; the «-stem in the solitary Vedic nakth-bhis ( R V . vii. 104, 8 = A V . viii. 4, 18) which Joh. Schmidt, K Z . xxvi. 18, and Pluralbildungen, p. 212, identifies with Goth, n a h t a m («-stem). It has occurred to me that naktdbhis b y n i g h t might be the analogical opposite of d h a b h i s b y

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d a y (see below, p. 22), but the difference in the accent renders this u n l i k e l y ; the accent of naktabhis is the old accent of the oblique cases, that of dhabhis, as well as the entire stem akan-, seems to have followed the analogy of dhar and dhas (ahobhis). Goth, nahtam could also be imagined as the opposite of the o. stem dagam, but for Goth, nahta-mats 'supper,' which, like Goth. auga-daurd ' w i n d o w ' (cf. dat. plur. augani), has propagated the inorganic representatives of the »-stem: the «-stem seems therefore to be old. T h e heteroclitic declension appears most clearly in Gr. rjpap (J] fie pa), rjfmros d a y ; V e d i c khar,

dim-as

( Z e n d l o c . asni)

day;

Zd. t]sapare, gen. fjsa/nd n i g h t , V e d i c usar d a w n (extended to the oblique cases, gen. usr&s) ; cf. also vasara- e a r l y ; Lith. auszrti,

G r . r\4p-io-s, avp-10-», rjpt i n t h e

morning:

a trace of the

w-stem perhaps in Zend u'i sand (=*usano), according to Geldner, Bezz. Beitr. xiv. 1. T h e r-stem without the w-stem is found in Zd. ay are d a y Z d . ydre, yara- y e a r , Goth, jer, Gr. &pa, O b g . jarii, jar a; further in the German stem for w i n t e r in O h g . wintar,

Ags.

-dirtier, G o t h . vintr-us\

and

for

summer:

Ohg.

sumar, A g s . sumer\ see Kahle, ibid. p. 1 8 ; K l u g e , Stammbildung, p. 2; Schmidt, Pluralbildung, p. 207. T h e r-stem appears also in Vedic vatsard- y e a r , by the side of vatsa- ' y e a r ling calf' and Gr. Feros: cf. Cu. Etym. 5 p. 208; Hiibschmann, ibid. Likewise in Latin vesper, vesper a, Gr. eW¿pa e v e n i n g , parallel but not identical with which are Lith. vdkara-s, O b g . veceru ' evening': the suffix is the same as that of the G r e e k and Latin words. Cf. Schmidt, ibid. p. 18 note. Further, O h g . demar 'crepusculum,' demer-ungd ' crepusculum' seems to hold the same relation to V e d . t&mas as ilsar- : tisas, above ; see Schmidt, ibid. p. 206. Here also belong O h g . wetar, A g s . weder w e a t h e r ; cf. O b g . vedro h o t w e a t h e r ; perhaps likewise the adverbially employed stems, Vedic mtihur q u i c k l y (cf. muhur-ta m o m e n t ) ; sabar- a t o n c e , in sabar-dhdk (nom.), sabar-diigha' g i v i n g milk at once'; V e d . ptinar a g a i n ; Zd. isare at o n c e ; Gr. aap i m m e d i a t e l y , of which the corresponding »-stem may be contained in av m e n ' s c h a m b e r ; imr&v s t a b l e ; Xammv p l a c e c o v e r e d w i t h s h r u b b e r y ; Keve