-n- adjectival suffix in Latin

[Damien Perrotin]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

Paolo Agostini<
wrote

>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?

This ending is first found in Etruscan, where it has the same use as in
Latin, but as the affiliation of Etruscan is far from being sure, it is not
of great utility.
A similar ending is used in Russian to form past passive participles
(-nny). A suffix -ina- is also used in Germanic to form adjectives (Gotic
quineins : feminine)

Damien Erwan Perrotin