-n- adjectival suffix in Latin

Paolo Agostini pagos at bigfoot.com
Thu Jul 22 18:59:36 UTC 1999


I was wondering about the origins of the Latin adjectival
suffix -n-us, -n-a, -n-um appearing in words like _mater-nus_ "maternal;
motherly; belonging/pertaining to the mother", _pater-nus_ "paternal;
fatherly; belonging/pertaining to the father", _feli-nus_ "feline;
belonging/pertaining to the cat; belonging/pertaining to  the family/genus
of the cats/felidae" and the like.  Can it be traced back to IE? Does the
morpheme exist in other IE or non-IE languages? Any idea abt its etymology
and/or development?

Thanks in advance for your answers.
Cheers

Paolo Agostini



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