-phóros, -phorós, -fer

Gk phóros "a carrying"
Gk phorós "a carrying (person), a carrier"

Latin -fer "a carrying (person, object)"

The two first are recognised to be related; phorós is an adjective
derived from the noun phóros. But phóros is thematic, and adjectives
in -ós are supposedly derived from athematic nouns.

The noun -fer is athematic. So it was once N *bhér-&s (or
*´-bh&r-s), G *bh&r-ós.

The noun -fer (etc) does not occur outside of compounds. But since
it is originally identical to Gk phóros and phorós, those two latter
have their /o/'s from the fact that they can occur as independent
words (but often they don't).

athematic enclitic
*´-bh&r-&s, *-bh&r-ós

->

athematic free word
*bhór-&s, *bh&r-ós

->

thematic adjective
*bhor-ós, *bhor-ós(-yo)

->

thematic noun
*bhór-&s, *bhór-os (by contrast to the adjective)
->
*bhór-os, *bhór-os(-yo)


That's meant to be an alternative explanation to the O-prefix/infix.


Torsten