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

At 10:37:33 PM on Thursday, March 27, 2008, Carl Edlund
Anderson wrote:

> --- 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.

PCelt. *nerto- 'strength' is from PIE *h2ner-to- 'strong,
virile', where I believe that *-to- is a suffix forming
both deverbal (participial) and denominal adjectives. I
suppose that *h2ner-to- is something like 'having strength
and vitality, having the essence of manhood' (PIE *h2né:r
'man', Gk. <ané:r>).

Brian