(ex-Metius Fufetius) PIE Patronymic

From: Gordon Barlow
Message: 48537
Date: 2007-05-11

Blank>Should we consider patronymical use as PIE?
>Was there a kind of patronymical suffix (-i, -yo, etc.) or just a genitive,
something like Zeus son of Kronos = Zeus of Kronos?
>Joao S. Lopes

If you mean for common men, tribal or clan surnames are more plausible, to
me. For a commoner's patronymic to be useful as an identifier, the father
would have to be well known. In a tribal or clan context patronymics would
work, and also in places where clans and tribes no longer held sway (as in
towns, for instance), but not necessarily elsewhere.

If you mean for gentry/nobility, at most stages of history and in most IE
cultures, then surnames would more plausibly have been taken from the names
of the estates identified with the individuals.

When you mean for gods, then a father's name may customarily have been
attached to a son in lieu of a clan/family/tribe name.

Gordon Barlow