> > > What's the official story of the nominative -s of kuningas
> >
> > It's borrowed from Germanic *kunniNga-z and the final -s is not a
> > nom. marker in Finnish.
>
> You left out lammas, which is a neuter, of obscure origin, in Germanic, thus without nom. -s, but an s-stem, and which inflects to the same pattern as kuningas, that of the vieras declension:
The suffix -as develop'd to a sort of "loanword suffix" in Finnic, and later to a general diminutiv; Livonian is particularly fond of it.
> which has, according to Wiktionary, 517 members in Finnish, the first 200 here:
> http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Finnish_vieras-type_nominals
>
>
> What's going on here? They can't all be loans, all 517 of them, or?
Most of those are recent formations utilizing the adjectival suffix -kas, derived from the Uralic diminutiv -kka by addition of -(a)s (or perhaps extracted from words such as _hurskas_, _rikas_.) A few have a similar -lias, -las.
Weeding those out, we indeed have mostly loans (Gmc reconstructions not mine):
hansikas <~ Swedish handske
tikkaat <~ tika-puut < Old Swedish stige
tyyris < ONo dýr
verstas <~ Swedish verkstad
---
allas < Gmc *aldoon
altis < Gmc *alTijaz
harras < Gmc *hardaz
hauras < Gmc *sauraz
hurskas < Gmc *xurskaz
kallis ~ Gmc? Low German hall 'dry'
kangas < Gmc *gangaz
kaplas < Gmc *kablaz (also: kapula)
karvas < Gmc *xarwaz
katras ~ Gmc? 'gather' etc.
kaunis < Gmc *skauniz
kauris < Gmc *xafraz
kuningas < Gmc *kuningaz
keidas < Gmc *skaidaz
keihäs < Gmc *gaizaz
lammas < Gmc *lambaz
mallas < Gmc *maltaz
paljas ~ Gmc? *failjaz > Ger. feil (bad semantics)
parras < Gmc *bardaz
patsas ~ Gmc *bandsaz, or hypoth. *badjaz
porras < Gmc *bordaz
raavas < Gmc *Trawwaz
rahvas < variant of the prev.
rakas < Gmc *frakaz
reipas < Gmc *reifaz
rengas < Gmc *xrengaz
rikas < Gmc *riikja-
ruhtinas < Gmc *druxtinaz
ruumis ~ Gmc *skruma ?
ryväs ~ Gmc *drufa- ? (cf. newer rypäle)
rypäs < var. of the prev.
räystäs < Gmc *xrausta- (or rather, from a later Scand. form)
sairas < Gmc *sairaz
tehdas < Gmc *stixtaz (or older IE)
teuras < Gmc *Teuraz, *steuraz
tiivis < Gmc *stiifaz
valas < Gmc *xwalaz
valtias < valta < Gmc *walda
vannas < Gmc *wanduz
vantus < Scand. *wantuz
varas < Gmc *wargaz
varras < Gmc *wardaz (or derived in F. from U. *warti, which may be < IE)
vauras < Gmc *wabraz
viisas < Gmc *wiisaz
äyräs < Gmc *aaferaz (or *auraz)
---
ankerias < Baltic *angurjas
ansas < Baltic *ansVs
hammas < Baltic *Zambas
hirvas < Baltic *Sirvis
irstas ~ Baltic *irta- "loose"?
karsas < Baltic, cf. Li. skẽrsas
kiivas < Baltic, cf. Li. gývas
kirves < Baltic *kirvis
kitsas ~ Baltic? Li. gídis (or ~ onomatopoetic kitise-?)
oinas < Baltic, cf. Li. ãvinas
rastas < Baltic, cf. La. strazds
ratas < Baltic *ratas
ruis < Baltic *rugiz
seiväs < Baltic, cf. Li. stíebas
tuulas < Baltic, cf. La. dũlis
vehmas < Baltic, cf. Li. veùmas
äes < Baltic, cf. La. ecēas
---
ies < considered Slavic; clearly IE anyway ("yoke")
piiras < alt. of common Finnic piirakka < Russian
saapas < alt. of common Finnic *saappaka < Russian
tahdas < considered Slavic (~ tahna, tahma)
---
eväs < pre-Baltic *jevos?
marras < PIA *mrtas (or therearound)
messias < Latin (late, inflection affected by the -a-)
naaras < II? ~ Sansk. nārī
porsas < PIE or pre-IA (also in Mordvinic, Permic)
puhdas < PIE *puHtos?? (common Finnic)
taivas < PIA *daivas (if not Gmc *teiwaz + semantic shift to "sky") (common Finnic)
---
kinnas < ?? (Latvian cimds < Livonian)
kirkas < ?? (~ kirku- "to scream")
kunnas < ?? (~ kunnar)
oas < ?? (common Finnic, ~ oka)
pensas < ?? (common Finnic, also Samic)
pylväs < ?? (common Finnic *pylvä)
runsas < ??
sees < ??
uljas < ??
uuras < ?? (~ uuttera, Estonian udris)
valmis < ??
valpas < ?? (immediately from < valvoa)
varvas < ?? (Common Finnic *varpa)
---
köngäs < Samic *keawNés
---
From Uralic roots:
(generally diminutiv variants particular to Finnish)
eräs < erä (also in Karelian & Veps)
kalvas < kalpea
kiuas < kivi-kasa
koiras < koira
kärkäs < kärki
lipas < lippa (also in K&V)
lounas < louna
mätäs < *mäktä (common Finnic)
nauris < *nakra (common Finnic)
olas < olka
opas < backformation from opasta- < oppi
oras < ora (common Finnic, Liv. voruuks)
paras < para (possibly < IE, but no original -s in Uralic)
puras < pura (alt. of purasin)
saalis < saada (common Finnic)
sitkas < sitkeä
tupas < tuppo
typäs < alt. of prev.
töyräs < contamin. of äyräs + törmä
uros < uro
vieras < vieri (common Finnic)
ylväs < ylpeä < ylä
---
(not in my etymol. dictonary)
havas
kalkas (probably onomatop. + -kas)
kaskas
kuhilas
kynnäs (looks like a suffix alternant of kynnys "threshold")
laupias (~ laupea)
pallas (usually inflects as -kse-)
rietas (~ riehua, rivo)
rynnäs (from rinta + affectiv labialization?)
turilas
A large number of the Germanic ones have limited distribution (generally only North Finnic, or Finnish proper), so even if they have a non-IE origin in Gmc, I'd bet Finnish got them from Gmc anyway. Exceptions with wider distribution: hauras, kangas, karvas, kaunis, kauris, kuningas, paljas, parras, patsas, rengas, rikas, ryväs, ryväs, teuras, äyräs.
I'll cut it here. Happy analyzing!
> And what's the deal with the 'literary genitive plural form kuningasten' which keeps the -s suffix?
> http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kuningas
That's because the -s is historically present in all forms of the paradigm:
kuningas : kuningas-en : kuningas-et : kuningas-et-en
Lenition s > h > 0 medially in unstress'd syllables is regular. So certainly not a Finnic nominativ marker!
> BTW, since the IE m.nom.sg *-s and the IE s-stem *-s- seem to have the same reflection in Finnish, are they somehow reælated in IE,
> Torsten
Why should that be? They've the same reflection in Finnish because of the phonetical similarity.
John Vertical