etymology

[Dorian Juric]

I have it from a better source that the -in suffix is thought by some linguists to be a borrowing from Finno-Ugric languages.

Dorian Juric, MA
PhD Student
Department of Anthropology
Chester New Hall 534
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
L8S 4L9
Canada

Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 17:25:24 +0000
From: dorian06 at HOTMAIL.COM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] etymology
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU




Please don't put much stock in this, I only dabble in linguistics, but I was always led to believe that -ov endings were the most common because they related patrilineal descent and that they -in endings were for those rare matrilines that arose through various historical processes (and probably often shame). I'm not sure how that information ever came to me or how valid it is, but it seems to make sense given that it mirrors (at least BCSM) possessive forms (Jasnina jabuka, Markova jabuka).

Dorian Juric, MA
PhD Student
Department of Anthropology
Chester New Hall 534
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
L8S 4L9
Canada

Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 00:51:59 -0400
From: adamovitchk at GMAIL.COM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] etymology
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU

Hello, 

Firstly, Сталев, Ленов, Путев, Путьев, Медведин, Зверин, Голубин - are also all existing last names, it's not really a set rule that only certain suffixes are to be used in last names. Some are more common than others, but that often depends on a specific region more than grammatical rules.


Last names ending in "in" - are often, though also not always, names based on belonging to a family, clan, father (sometimes mother), etc. My guess would be that (depending on how far back the last name can be traced back) - it's either from "путь" (as a native speaker, I do not think Путев or Путьев is more likely than Путин, they sound exactly the same to me as far as last names that could come from "путь"), or from Путя, short for a number of Slavic names (Путивой, Путимир, Путислав, Путисил, Путята, etc) - simply meaning "son of Путя", which could stand for any of those full names. 


My guess is that unless his family can be traced to a specific person with one of those names - it's impossible to actually say for sure, especially considering the etymology of most of those names would still trace back to "путь".



Re- Rasputin - if you mean Grigory Rasputin - that was his actual last name, he was born to one Efim Rasputin. I suppose at one point before becoming a family name it was indeed a nickname (not an expert on Rasputin here!), but that's not really uncommon for Russian last names.




Hope this helps,
Best, 
Ksenia A.

On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 3:36 PM, John Dingley <jdingley43 at gmail.com> wrote:


Hi!



Can someone enlighten me as to the etymology of the

Russian family name Путин? Presumably one does not

want to derive it from путь since путь is an

original masculine -i stem noun (the only one to

survive into Modern Russian) and one would expect

*Путев, which is the case with other family names

derived from masculine -i stems, e.g

Медведев < медведь

Зверев < зверь

Голубев < голубь



As a rule of thumb, the suffix -ин is used to form

family names from nouns ending in -а/-я, e.g

Воронин < ворона, Ленин < Лена and feminine

-i stems, e.g. Сталин < сталь.  The suffix

-ов/-ев being used elsewhere. This distribution

betrays their possessive adjective origin.



Unbegaun (p.161) explains Распутин as a nickname,

where different formation rules apply.



John Dingley



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