From: Miguel Carrasquer
Message: 29179
Date: 2004-01-06
>06-01-04 16:26, Joao wrote:In colloquial Russian, the -ov- (and -ev-) are usually dropped in any case
>
>> But, why not Iliaevich?
>
>You mean "Ilyevich", I suppose ("Ilya-evich" is completely impossible).
>One reason is that patronymics in <-ov>/<-ev> (the latter after a
>palatal consonant) were not formed from masculine names in <-(j)a>,
>where <-in> was preferred (hence <Il'jin>, <Nikitin>, etc., which still
>occur as surnames). The extension of these basic patronymics with
>pleonastic <-ic^> (also with a patronymic function), was originally, as
>far as I know, an upper-class phenomenon, and the right to it was at one
>time a special honour bestowed by the tsar on his dignitaries (hence
>surnames such as <Il'jinic^> and the modern type of patronymic
>exemplified by <Ivanovic^> and <Sergejevic^>). Nowadays, <-ic^> occurs
>on its own in patronymics derived from names in <-a>, such as <Nikitic^>
>and <Il'jic^>, and was also traditionally possible in <-slav(ov)ich>
>(where <-ov-> could be dropped haplologically).