Suffix -ar in IE and Vennemann's Vasconic

Patrick C. Ryan proto-language at email.msn.com
Tue Apr 27 05:42:20 UTC 1999


Dear Larry and IEists:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Larry Trask <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
Sent: Monday, April 26, 1999 2:39 AM

[ moderator snip ]

> The Basque suffix <-(t)ar> is indeed an ethnonymic.  In older
> formations, it appears as <-tar> after a consonant and as <-ar> after a
> vowel, a common type of alternation in Basque, though newer formations
> do not always respect this distribution.

> But I'm not sure what other suffix is intended here.  It is true that a
> number of nouns end in a morph <-ar> and that many of these denote
> things which are commonly encountered in bunches, like <ilar> `pea',
> <izar> `star', <ondar> `sand', <abar> `branch', and so on, but nobody
> knows if this ending represents a fossilized suffix or not.

Larry, no need to tell me that you do not accept any connection of this last
Basque <-ar> with anything outside of Basque but some readers might be
interested in the idea that this termination, rather than denoting "things
... in bunches" is more narrowly defined as an 'indefinite amount', which I
take to be a motivating factor of IE r/n-declension. I explain this at:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/comparison-AFRASIAN-3-r-N-declens
ion.htm

 Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN (501) 227-9947; FAX/DATA (501)312-9947 9115 W. 34th St.
Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803 and PROTO-RELIGION:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit
ek, at ek hekk, vindga meipi, nftr allar nmu, geiri undapr . . . a ~eim
meipi er mangi veit hvers hann af rstum renn." (Havamal 138)



More information about the Indo-european mailing list