Origin of Idoeuropean denominal suffixes
From: aquila_grande
Message: 19485
Date: 2003-03-02
In IE there is a set for denominal suffixes that derive (mostly
factitive) verbs from nouns; -(i)ske/sko, -io/-ie, -no/-ne, -neu/-
nu, -to/te
Do anyone know something about the origin of these suffixes.
Myself, I thing that they might be petrified verbal stems in compound
verbs containing a nominal stem and then the a verbal stem.
When looking for explanation for old elements, I like to look at
modern languages,and see if I can find mechanisms that may explain
the old phenomenas.
In modern Skandinavian compund verbs consisting of a
nominal/ajectival stem and then the verbal stem is very common.
Espesially the verb gjør-e= to do is often used this way: blid-gjør-e
=to make happy, ren-gjør-e =to clean/to make clean. As these
compounds are used in daily speech, the verb is actually in the
process of becommomg a derivational affixe.
These afixes seem to have two functions in IE: They make denominative
verbs, and they mark verbal aspect/tempus-stems.
If these originally were verbs, they might in a very early period
have been independent words used in the following way:
-Combined with a noun/adjective: Denote a prosess that result in a
state expressed by the noun/adjective.
-Combined with a (infinite) verbal form: Used as auxiliary verbs that
express aspect.
Well, then to think even further: If these and other affixes are old
verbal stems, and the hypothesis that IE and other languages families
have a common ancestor, these affixes might be traced also in uralic
or altaic, either as affixes or as independent verbs.