Re: Uralic Loanwords in Germanic

W dniu 2010-02-15 17:32, Torsten pisze:

> I'd argue 'paradigm regularization' instead of 'morphological
> truncation' (it would be better motivated).

Whatever the mechanism, the final result was morphological truncation.
One can suspect that the actual sequence of events was:

(1) levelling the vocalism: *seGaz/*siGiziz -> *siGiz/*siGiziz
(2) reinterpreting the nom.sg.: *siGiz = *siGi- + -z (with change of gender)
(3) adjusting the rest of the paradigm -> *siGi-z, gen. siGi:z, etc.

> Well, a paradigm -#/-es- *is* reflected in West Germanic.

Only its fragments are. In Old English, for example, there is no trace
of a reflex of *-s- in any singular forms of the <lamb/lambru> type.
They were refashioned early into ordinary a-stem case forms, so that we
get e.g. gen.sg. <lambes> rather than **lember < *lamBiziz or the like.
The -r- (< *-z-) suffix became a redundant plural marker.

> I was wondering if 'Aestian' *gl-ás-/*gl-azá- (ablautless, Rozwadowski's
> change) might be a s-stem neuter, based on a reclassified genitive (->
> nominative)?

I'm afraid I don't quite see what you mean. I'd be grafteful for some
details of the proposed scenario.

Piotr