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

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

> It was palatalized P.-Iran. *r which resulted in Ossetic 'l',
> with 'næl' coming from *narya-. In other contexts P.-Iran.
> *nar did result in Ossetic 'nær', as in 'nærun' from *nar-,
> 'to thunder', or 'naræg' from *na:raka-, 'thin'.
> [...]
> I don't know if the long vowel's a problem, since Ossetic has
> 'nærton' with a short vowel, meaning 'Nartic', and Sanskrit
> has 'nAra-' with a long vowel, based on the same root, meaning
> 'human, mortal'.

Huh, well, then I would be back to the proverbial Square One, since PIE *ner still seems
then a good starting place, but the -t- suffix, whether or not Pokorny's -thra- suffix, still
mystifies me. :/

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "ualarauans" <ualarauans@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "david_russell_watson" <liberty@>
> wrote:
> > Carl wrote:
> > > Abaev's suggestion that Nartae derives from Mongolian nara "sun"
> > > (with -tae as a pluralizing suffix with a genitival sense -- the
> > > [in]famous Indo-Iranian -ta collective suffix?) is interesting,
> > > though it's not clear to me whether the vowel in nara is, or was
> > > originally, a long /a:/ of the sort Abaev says must stand behind
> > > the form Nartae.
> >
> > I don't know how the 'a' of 'nara' is pronounced either, I'm
> > afraid.
>
> The /a/ in _nar_ "sun" is a short one (long vowels are written with
> double letters in the Mongolian Cyrillic script).

Mmm, that would be a further point against Abaev's analysis then. Perhaps I'm indeed
back to square one on trying to figure out the suffix in Nartae! :/

Cheers,
Carl