Latin -arius > Germanic -arjaz (was: [tied] Slavic *-os (*-om))

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:

> While I'm at it:
> Germanic and Basque both loaned an agent suffix -ari from Latin
> -arius (which is not an agent suffix), persumably *-ario by the time
> of loan. Question: what happened to the final -o ?

Latin -arius was assimilated as Germanic -arjaz, and had the same fate
as Germanic -ja stems. It was not yet an agent suffix in Old English.

Why the 'presumably *-ario'. To be pedantic, nominative singular -s still
survives in French <fils>. More to the point, the nominative singular
ending of masculine nouns (well, Latin 2nd declension to be precise) in
Old French was <-s>.

Richard.