A grammar of the Homeric dialect - Wilbourhall.org

104 NOUN FORMATION. [U4*-
Similarly from Verb-Stems with the suffix -T we have Aat-r-fta
gulf (cp. XCLL-JJLOS throat), av-r-pri breath, also dv-r-jju^v (root av-),
p-r-fji6s oar, e-e-r-/z?j injunction.
114*. Variation of Suffixes.
1.
Primary Suffixes were originally liable to variation of
the kind already noticed ( 106).
From the Sanscrit declension,
in which the variation is preserved with singular fidelity, it
appears that a Suffix in general has three different forms or
degrees of quantity, called by Sanscrit grammarians the strong,
the middle, and the weakeit form. Just as in the declension of
dyaus, Gr. Zevj, we find (T) dyau- in the Nom., (2) dyau- in the
Loc. dyav-i (Lat.
Jovi for diev-i),
and (3) div- or diu- in other
'
Cases, so in dd-ta 'giver we have (i)
-tar- in the Ace. dd-tdr-am,
(2) -far- in the Loc. dd-tdr-i, and (3)
-tr- in the Dat. dd-tr-e,
Instrum. dd-tr-a.
Similarly we have the series -dr, -dr, -r ; -man, -man, -mn ;
-van, -van, -vn ; -an, -an, -n, &c. : the rule being that the first
or strong form contains a long vowel, which in the second is
short, and in the third disappears altogether.
In the combinations -va, -ia the a is lost and the semivowel
becomes a vowel, thus giving -u, -i.
2. In Greek we find the same Suffixes as in Sanscrit, with the
further distinction that the vowel may be tj
or , -pov, -\w\v, -per, -pv
(-jua, -fJiav) ; -wa, -op-os, the second in 6a>-ra)/>, -rop-os,
to the exclusion of the original ^/xrjo-rp-o's, *Sa>rp-o'j, &c. The
*
weakest ' form, however, often appears in derivatives e. ; g.
TrotjueV-05, iroifjiv-r] : dci/xwz;, 8ei/xoz;-o9, Sei/xatrco (for -pav-iut,
:
Ofpdirtov, Fern. Ocpatrv-rj, also Otpa-naiva (for -TTV-LO) :
larp-os : vbu>p, vbp-o$ : re'K-/u, (-fxw^ -Fw), -wp 5 (-Twp), &c.
to -T^, -JJ-TJI/, -Fi]v, -T)p, -TT)p, &c. has been the subject of much
controversy. It is generally agreed
that the difference is not
original, but arises in each case by differentiation from a single