Re: Etymology of Osettic "Nart"? (the suffix?)

Carl, the word is listed in Pokorny as *ner-(t-).

*ner- means 'strong (vital) man'

*ner-to- means 'strength (vitality)'

I think there is a good possibility that the word was originally *no-ró,
'strong will'.

So, 'determined'.



Patrick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Edlund Anderson" <cea@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 9:37 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Etymology of Osettic "Nart"? (the suffix?)


--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Ryan" <proto-language@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Edlund Anderson" <cea@>
> wrote:
> >Celtic shows reflexes of a *ner-to-, though I don't know the function of
> >that -to- suffix;
>
> *ner-to-, 'strength'

Well, yes, "strength" is certainly the sense of *ner-to- in Celtic, though
since PIE *ner-
already carries the sense "vital energy", I was wondering whether the -to-
suffix itself has a recognized function or sense to it.

Cheers,
Carl