Indo-European singulatives - Etymology and the European Lexicon

Etymology and the European Lexicon, Copenhagen, 17 September 2012
Indo-European singulatives
Tijmen Pronk, Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje, tpronk@ihjj.hr
1. Indo-European n-stems
Derive an individual from an adjective, e.g. Gr. Στράβων PN, lit. ‘squinter’, Οὐρανίωνες ‘heavenly
ones’, Gr. Πά̄ν TN, Skt. pūṣán- TN, lit. ‘the herding, protecting one’ < *p(e)h2-us-n-, Av. marətan-
‘mortal’, Lat. Catō PN, lit. ‘the clever one’, OIr. marbán ‘dead person’, cáechán ‘blind person’, Goth.
weiha ‘priest’, Lith. pirmuõ ‘first-born’.
Derive a ‘person pertaining to, of the’ from a noun, e.g. Lat. homō ‘man’, OHG ōstara ‘spring
goddess’, Lith. sesernas ‘sister’s son’, Lat. dominus ‘master of the house’, Goth. þiudans ‘king’.
Grammatical functions:
Germanic: definite adjectives.
Greek: comparatives in -ιων < *-is-ōn.
Tocharian: marker of rational beings.
Pontic Greek: definite form of masculine o-stems: o fílon, gen. ti fílonos ‘the friend’.
The n-stems also derive singulatives from collectives and duals denoting natural pairs.
2. Celtic singulative n-stems
Celtic has a suffix *-Vn(n)-io/ā that forms singulatives derived from a collective:
OIr. grán (n.) ‘grain’, grá(i)nne (f.) ‘a grain’, glaine (f.) ‘jaw’, glainine ‘a jaw(bone)’, folt (m.) ‘hair’,
foiltne ‘a hair’, Welsh adar ‘birds’, ederyn (m.) ‘a bird’, calaf ‘reed’, celevyn (m.) ‘a reed’, tywys ‘ears of
corn’, tywysen (f.) ‘a corn ear’ etc.
The vowel of the suffix can be -i- or -e-. Traditionally compared it to the adjectival appurtenance
suffix *-in- (Gr. -ιν-, Lith., OPr., Lat. -in-, OCS -ьn-). More likely: formations in -ne derive from an
n-stem, cf. OIr. asna 'rib' < *astVn-, MW assen, pl. eis from the root-noun in MW ascurn, MB ascorn
'bone'.
The singulative suffix reflects an n-stem enlarged with *-o-.
3. Armenian singulative n-stems
Armenian akn ‘eye’, jeṙn ‘hand’, otn ‘foot’, duṙn ‘door, gate’, singulatives to plural ač‘k‘, jeṙk‘, otk‘,
durk‘. Cf. also unkn ‘ear’, virtually exclusively singular.
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Traditional explanation: acc.sg. of a root-noun in -, cf. ewtcn ‘seven’ < *sept But PIE *h3ekw- ‘eye’
was neuter and *duor- a duale or plurale tantum.
Reanalysis of the suffix as -kn: akn ‘eye’ (with *kcn > kn) ⇒ unkn ‘ear’, armukn ‘elbow’ ⇒ jukn ‘fish’,
mukn ‘mouse’.
4. Indo-European singulative body parts (selection)
Celtic has singulatives to collectives, Armenian has singulatives to duals denoting a natural pair. In
other branches there is a frequent pattern of n-stem forms next to other formations for nouns that
typically refer to a collective or dual.
‘eye’ and ‘ear’
Arm. akn ‘eye’, unkn ‘ear’, Goth. augo ‘eye’, OCS okъno ‘window’ < *-n̥-, Goth. auso, Gr. οὖς, gen.
οὒατος ‘ear, handle’.
‘knee’
OIr. glún, W -glin, Alb. gjun, Gr. γόνυ, gen. γόνατος, γούνατος next to γουνός (Homer). Celtic and
Albanian show (independent) dissimilation of n...n to l...n. The Celtic long vowel must be explained
from the dual *-uh1. Greek adapted to the r/n-stems.
‘eyebrow’
ON brūn ‘edge’ < *bhruH-n-
Lith. dial. birvė ‘eyebrow’ < *bhr̥u̯-ēn, Žemaitian brùnė ‘eyebrow, back of a knife or razor’, Lith.
briaunà (4) ‘edge’, OCS brьvъno, brъvъno ‘beam’.
Cf. *bhruH-: ToB pärwāne, Skt. bhr-, Gr. ὀφρῦς, OE brū, Lith. bruvìs, dial. brùvė, CS brьvь
‘eyebrow’.
The Baltic forms preclude a laryngeal. Two options:
- u-stem *bhrh1-u- (cf. Gaul. briua ‘bridge’, OHG brāwa ‘eyebrow’ < *bhreh1-u-?) - dual. *bhru-h1 / collective *bhru-h2- next to singulative *bhru-n-. ‘arm’ and ‘shoulder’
Vedic dós, (ŚB) gen.sg. doṣṇás 'forearm' (adapted to the r/n-stems).
ToA poke, B (obl.) pokai, (gen.) pokantse ‘arm’ (n-stem), cf. Gr. πῆχυς, Skt. bāhú- ‘forearm’
Polish ramię, Rus. ramená (pl.) ‘shoulder’ < *-m-en-, cf. OCS ramo, Skt. īrmá-, Lat. armus < *-mo.
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‘nail’
OIr. ingen (f.) ‘nail, claw’, OW, OBret. eguin < *angwīnā < *h3nghu-ēn-eh2, cf. Lat. unguis, ToA maku
‘nails’, Gr. ὄνυξ ‘claws’ < *h3nghu-. The formation is identical to that of OIr. uilen (f.), OW pl. elinou, MBret. elin ‘elbow’ < *h3el-ēn-eh2.
Arm. ełungn ‘nail’ (details unclear)
5. Vedic i/n-heteroclitics
Vedic ákṣi, gen. sg. akṣṇás 'eye' (cf. akṣaṇvánt- ‘having eyes, seeing’), sákthi, nom.pl. sakthni 'thigh',
ásthi, gen. sg. asthnás 'bone' (cf. Av. astəntāt- ‘corporeality’)
The aspirate of sákthi and ásthi points to *-h2, ákṣi ‘mountain’, singulative *gwer-h2-n- ‘rock, stone’, adj. *gwer-h2-u- ‘heavy’ (earlier *gwer-u-), contamination to *gwer-h2-n-u- and *gwer-h2-u-n-. 7. ‘horn’
singulative: *ḱer-n- (to an old dual?):
Latin cornum ‘horn’, W. carn ‘hoof’, Go. haurn ‘horn’, MW ascurn 'bone' < *ast-ḱor-n-, Skt. śŕ̥ṅga-
‘horn’, OHG (h)rind, ‘horned animal’, OE hrȳðer ‘cow’, probably also MW cern ‘corner, jaw, cheek,
side’, HLuw. suran- ‘horn’
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collective *ḱer-h2-:
Gr. κάρᾱ ‘head’, Myc. qo-u-ka-ra ‘ox-headed’
u-stem *ḱer-h2-u-:
Gr. κεραός ‘horned’, δίκροος ‘forked’, Lith. kárvė, CS krava, Pol. dial. karw ‘cow’, OPr. curwis ‘ox’,
sirwis ‘doe’, Lat. cervus, W carw, OHG hiruz ‘deer’. Also Av. srū-, sruuā- ‘nail, horn’, OIr. cruë
‘hoof’ with laryngeal metathesis?
s-stem *ḱer-h2-s-:
Vedic śíras- ‘head, top’, Av. sarah- ‘head’, Gr. κέρας ‘horn (for blowing and drinking)’, Myc. ins.pl.
ka-ra-a-pi /krāhaphi/, Arm. sar ‘top, tip, summit’ (if not from Iranian), Lat. cerebrum ‘brain’, Gr.
κάρᾱ, gen.sg. κρᾱάτος ‘head’, κρᾱνίον ‘skull, brain-pan’, κάρηνα (n.pl.) ‘heads, tops’, ON hjarni,
MDu. hersene ‘brain’, ON hjarsi ‘skull’.
The forms deriving from an n-stem are originally singulatives.
Conclusion
Proto-Indo-European formed singulatives by deriving an n-stem from a root or stem. The original
situation is best preserved in Celtic, there are relics in Armenian.
All major branches of Indo-European (except perhaps Anatolian) contain n-stems or derivatives that
go back to such singulatives. The most prominent examples are body parts, most of which come in
pairs, and the words for ‘(mill)stone’ and ‘horn’.
References
Beekes, R. 1987 “PIE neuter i-stems”, FS Henry Hoenigswald, 45-56.
De Bernardo-Stempel, P. 1999 Nominale Wortbildung des älteren Irischen. Stammbildung und Derivation. Tübingen.
Hamp, E. 1994 “The laryngeal heteroclites” FS Karl Horst Schmidt, 35-40.
Kortlandt, F. 2003. Armeniaca: comparative notes. Ann Arbor.
Lambert, P.-Y. 1978 “Restes de la flexion hétéroclitique en Celtique?”, FS Michel Lejeune, 115-122.
Malzahn, M. 2001 Sandhiphänomene im Rigveda als Reflexe von Archaismen und Dialektismen. Vienna, unpubl. diss.
Marstrander, C. 1910 “Hibernica”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 7: 357-418.
Martirosyan, H. 2010 Etymological dictionary of the Armenian inherited lexicon. Leiden-Boston.
Matasović, R. 2009 Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden-Boston.
Meillet, A. 1892 “Notes Arméniennes”, MSL 8, 153-165.
Meillet, A. 1903 “Varia”, MSL 12, 213-238.
Meillet, A. 1925 “Le nom indoeuropéen de la meule”, FS Paul Boyer, 1-12.
Nussbaum, A. 1985 Head and Horn in Indo-European. Berlin-New York.
Olsen, B. 1999 The noun in Biblical Armenian. Berlin-New York.
Winter, W. 2005 Kleine Schriften, Selected Writings, in zwei Bänden. Bremen.
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