Some thoughts about endings etc.

[thiudans]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Fredrik" <gadrauhts@> wrote:
> >
> > The english ending -er on verbs, making them nouns in such words 
> as 
> > bringer, lover, jumper etc. has equal endings in gothic like -
> areis, -
> > ands/-andi and perhaps also -ja.
> > 
> > Is it right that the ending -ja (masc. weak) can this meaning?
> > Like garahnja from garahnjan. And is it also possible to just have 
> > the ending -a in some words?
> 
> 
> Yes, e.g. nuta "fisher".

Nuta seems to use the oldest agentive suffix *-an- which (I've read)
was probably not "active" in word creation during Wulfila's time, at
least, not as much as *-jan-, probably for the latter's greater
distinctness from simple weak noun endings. Nuta looks like it might
be an ablaut of *natja- "net", thus, nuta = lit. "netter". I've also
read that *-areis (> -er, the most usable creative agentive in English
today) was borrowed from Latin -arius, first through terms of office
or employment concerning trades unique to or identified with Romans.







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