Re: IE place-name suffixes?

--- In cybalist@..., Robert B Wilson <han_solo55@...> wrote:

> Perhaps this suffix could be related to the English adjectival

suffixes

> -an, -n, and -ana.
>
> "Pavel Lurje" <pavlvslvria@...> pekat:
> > Dear collegues.
> >
> > I'm now examining a very active Iranian place-name suffix -a:na,
> > -ana (New Persian -a:n, e.g. Tehra:n or Esfaha:n). Maybe, it is

some

> > rather old contamination of different suffixes and endings, such

as

> > patronymia in -ana, verbal Nomina Loci in -na and thematic Gen.

Pl.

> > in -a:na:m, maybe not.
> > With my minimal knowledge of Indoeuropaean studies I tried to

find

> > any corresponding place-name suffigia in other IE languages (it

can

> > be IE *-a(:)no-, *-e(:)no- or *-o(:)no-), but with minimal

success.

> > (German: Brehmen, Muenchen or Saarbruecken are merely plural, or
> > not?)
> > I'm very interested if you can name me something similar in other
> > groups of IE languages, or if you can state there are no
> > correspondences of this suffix (in it's toponymical usage) in the
> > fellow-languages of IE family.
> >
> > Will be grateful for any suggestions, references of www-links.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Pavel Lurje.
> >
> >

In Danish (as in Swedish, Norwegian, German) some countries end in -
en (Belgien, Albanien, Kalifornien etc). This looks, or should I say
feels to me as if it were a common gender (former masc.) version of
those country names that are constructed with the neuter suffixed
article: Tjekkiet, Tyrkiet, Mongoliet, but of course they are not;
the latter can be divided into its components: Europæisk Tyrki, Indre
Mongoli and in German are construed with a feminine article: die
Tschechei, die Türkei etc; the former can't and isn't.

Still I have a nagging doubt that there might be something there?
Norwegian reintroduced a female gender with the definite article -a;
at the same time they reshaped the -ien country names to have -ia (as
in the more "international" version: Albania etc). Why is that, if
they are not related, at least by Sprachgefühl? Does that mean that
the -en ending in country names is originally derived from a definite
article? Where does -en come from?

Which was the question, I suppose.

If yes, German would have a relic of a suffixed article. Hm!

(Norwegian definite articles, sg: -en, -a, -et; Danish, sg: -en, -et)

Torsten