-ia

[Ralf-Stefan Georg]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

>I've been looking for information about the suffix -ia which occurs in names
>of lands like ITALIA, GERMANIA, ALBANIA, FRANCIA, ANGLIA, HISPANIA, etc.
>Apparently it is associated to the Germanic -land (England, Deutschland,
>Lapland, etc.).


No, I wouldn't think so. This suffix can be traced back to Greek, whence it
spread via learned Latin into most European (and some non-European)
languages. In Greek, (accented) -ia is used for abstract nouns (eleutheria
"freedom" from eleutheros "free") and  country names. E.g. you have /phryx/
"a Phrygian" - /phrygios/ "Phrygian" - /phrygia/ "Phrygia"; or /Lydos/ -
/Lydios/ - /Lydia/. It can be viewed as a specialization of the feminine
(to the masc. -ios) for abstract nouns. -ios itself is best described as a
denominal adjective formant conveying the meaning of a most general
"belonging-to-"relation (/hesperios/ "belonging to, taking place at the
evening (hesperos)"; this one of the most widespread derivational suffixes
in Greek, and it is of Indo-European age, attested at least in Gk.,  Latin
(/patrius/ : /pater/), Indo-Aryan (skt. /pitryah/ : /pita:/), Slavic (oblg.
/materjI/ : /mater-/), Iranian (av. /gao-ya-/ "bovine, which belongs to the
cow"), Armenian (/kog-i/ "butter, lit. the same "cow-thing"), and probably
elsewhere, too.

Sorry, no "land" here.

Best,

Stefan Georg
Heerstrasse 7
D-53111 Bonn
FRG
+49-228-69-13-32