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

On 2008-05-23 02:55, david_russell_watson wrote:

> So then 'Nartæ' would simply be an obsolete word for 'men'? That's
> makes a lot of sense to me, and actually, now that I see it, seems
> like a rather obvious solution. One problem that I can see with it,
> however, is that it doesn't explain why a member of the Narts is
> never referred to singly as a 'Nar', which taking 'Nartæ' as a
> patronymic does.

Perhaps because words with the approximate meaning 'people' generally
tend to become collectives or pluralia tantum (paired, if nexcessary,
with a suppletive singular). Cf. Eng. <person> : <people> or Pol.
<czl/owiek> 'man, human being' or <osoba> 'person' vs. <ludzie>
'people'; and what's the singular of <folks>?

Piotr