ProtoLanguage-IE-PrefixPlurals.htm

INDO-EUROPEAN

Prefix Plurals

by Patrick C. Ryan

(1/31/08)

The utilization of prefixes to form IE plurals is unrecognized at present for the very good reason that it is not very easy to analyze them from existing reconstructed roots.

However, they can be seen patterning with -r (from PL RE) in a significant number of cases.

The formant -r plays a modest role in Indo-European (except Hittite) as the -r of the neuter heteroclite -r/n declension (Brugmann 1888: II, 375-6; III, 103-4), where its principal use is seemingly to specify small indefinite amounts of items normally conceptualized en masse for the nominative and accusative, the uses in which this specification most likely would be desired.

Examples of the indefinitizing function of -r probably can be seen in:

1. with plural suffixes -

a. + t[?]o: PL hhaf[h]a, "water-small definite plural" -> IE 9. aw(e)- [for *a:w- {cf. Old Indian o:dati:, "welling up"}, "wet, dampen, flow" + PL t[?]o, definite inanimate large plural -> IE *a:ud-, "*mass of water", cf. Armenian get, "river" + re -> IE *(a)udo:r- [cf. Greek údo:r, "water"], "(*some) water (to drink, to wash, etc.)";



b. + x[h]o: k[h]e, "dark" + x[h]o, "pack" -> IE k[y]ek[w]-, "manure" + re -> IE k[y]ek[w]r-, "piece of manure";

2. With plural prefixes:

a. PL fa, "group of ..." + ts[?]e, "finger, teat" -> IE u:dh-, "udder" + re -> IE u:dher-, "*teat (cf. Latin u:ber, "udder, teat");



b. PL ¿a, "much" + x[h]o, "pack", i.e. "dense or knobby" -> IE *ye/e:k^w-, "liver" + re -> *yak[w]r-, "piece of liver";



c. ¿a, "much" + se, "be emitted" -> IE *e/e:s- (for *yas-; cf. Old Latin aser, "blood"), "blood" + re -> *yasr-, "drop/puddle of blood";



d. ¿a, "much" + se, "seed" -> IE *es- (for *yas-; cf. Gothic asans, "harvest, summer"), "harvest(-time), summer" + re -> *yasr-, "*seed/harvest-time"; and,





1)) cf. + ná -> yasn-, "harvest(ed seed)"; and,





e. its analog fa, "collection" + se, "seed" -> IE *wes- (for *was-; cf. Greek ê:ros (from *wasr-), "spring"), "spring, *summer (cf. Latvian vasara, "summer") + re -> *wasr-, "*seed/planting-time"; and,





1)) cf. + na -> wasn-, "*planted seed[-time])" [cf. the interesting pair esu-s and we/e:su-, both "good"];





f. hha, "many" + t[h]o, "heat" -> IE *a:t-, [cf. Gaelic áith, "oven"], "fire" + re -> a:t(h)(e)r- [cf. Old Indian atharvan-, "'fire-priest"], "hearth".

Notice that in several of the examples above a plural formant begins the word; and the purpose of re is essentially to re-singularize the idea expanded uses can be seen in Hittite where, again, it is used to singularize: e.g. a-ni-u-ur, "performance", from a-ni-ya-az-zi, "performs" (*aniu-, "*things performed"); also in -Sar, -tar, -w/mar, -ttaraS).

3. In Hurrian and Urartian, in which it is much more in evidence, -r is seen:

a. in -(a)ra/e, e.g. in (h)iyari, "gold" [PL hha, "water" + ¿e, derivative -> hha¿(e), "reflective = metal" + re -> IE ayer- {cf. OHG e:r, "ore"}, "(piece of) ore";





1) the recognized IE form, ayos-, adds se, "seed = grain"];





b. in -eri/e, e.g. Urartian ^Dineria:Si, "divinity" ("god+indefinite plural+?");



c. and, -ari/e, e.g. Urartian patari/e (Hurrian pattarri, "???"), "city" [PL p[h]a, "flat" + t[h]o, definite large plural -> IE 1. pet-, "spread out, *fence [cf. MHG vade, "fence", and Sumerian bad-3, "city wall"]" + re, "single unit of things fenced/walled in, city"; in much smaller measure, English fother {wagon-load}];



d. and, in Urartian -uri, e.g. ag/yure, "the one who leads", Sidag/yure, "the one who built".

4. It is in Elamo-Dravidian that PL re functions vastly more widely:

a. as a ending for personal nouns (tuppira, "scribe");



b. as a passive ending and third person singular pronoun (McAlpin 1981: 43 and 70), seen again in Hittite (Sturtevant 1951: 141; 144; 145-148) and in the so-called "deponents" of various other IE languages (Brugmann 1881: IV, 572-9).

5. A residual appearance of, at least, a reflex of PL ¿a as a plural prefix should be expected in IE because of its definite attestation in archaic Egyptian nominals plurals in i- since both languages derive from Nostratic.

END OF IE PREFIX PLURALS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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