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Some Formations in -ti- and -tr(i)-

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Fritz Mezger
Fritz Mezger*
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College
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Extract

The element -ti-, -sti-, -stri- in Latin words like rūsticus, domesticas, terrestris goes back to a -ti-/-tri-formation of adverbs or prepositions denoting space and time; thus, *domesti-: *entesti-, *nemestri-: *ent(e)ri-. The terms formed on these adverbs and prepositions refer not only to location, but also to family, household, and social organization in general. They express a sharp distinction between terms designating persons or objects within the household and those outside it. In a general way, this contrast is expressed by the element r on the one hand and the element i on the other; no special function can be ascertained in this connection for the element t. Adverbs of space appear partly with t, partly without it. The r or tr came to be used in comparative forms; originally its meaning was spatial. It seems that the function of designating a contrast, which preceded the function of designating a comparative, developed in expressions meaning such things as ‘above’ and ‘below’: an object that is above another is ‘more above’ than the object with which it is contrasted.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 24 , Issue 2-Part1: April-June , June 1948 , pp. 152 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © 1948 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Stolz–Schmalz–Leumann5 230 and 236.

2 Leumann 236; Schulze, KZ 29.270–1 = Kl. Schr. 79: ‘caele-stis kann man etwa übersetzen qui stationem (cf. ξϵνόστασις, graecostasis) habet in caelo; Grdf. caelě-sttis.‘

3 Brugmann, Grdr.2 2.1.145; WP 2.604.

4 IF 11.17, 21, 24, 27; Grdr.2 2.1.327; Schulze, Kl. Schr. 79: ‘Skt. guru: lat. gravi-s = savya-]ṣṭhar: terre-], campe-]stris’.

5 Schulze, Kl. Schr. 71, n. 1.

6 Kl. Schr. 71–2.

7 Schulze, Kl. Schr. 69 ff.; Lohmann, IF 51.319 ff. (1933), ZSPhil. 10.351 ff (1933).

8 Meillet-Ernout, DELL2 796 ff., 783 (1939).

9 Grdr.2 2.1.482.

10 Walde–Hofmann, LEW 370.

11 Fraenkel, IF 50.16–7; Pedersen, Tocharisch 227 (1941), Zur Tocharischen Sprachgeschichte 34 ff. (1944); SSS 49.

12 Fraenkel IF 50.16.

13 The formative element of Toch. A ṣñaṣṣe has been compared with B -ṣṣe. A -ṣi, B -ṣṣe are assumed to represent IE see Benveniste, Festschrift Hirt 2.233. Van Windekens, BSL 41.198 ff., believes that the gen. pl. in dialect A, ending in -ççi, goes back to IE see also SSS 126–7.

14 Meillet, MSL 18.420 ff.

15 WP 1.641. Walde–Hofmann, LTW 663, taking Slavic as not being borrowed, do not accept this explanation.

16 Mezger, Word 2.232 ff.

17 Mezger, AJP 65.170–1 (1944).

18 Grdr.2 2.1.324 ff., 2.283 ff. Meillet–Ernout, DELL2 481

19 Grdr.2 2.1.324.

20 Schulze, Kl. Schr. 71.

21 Pedersen, Vgl. Gr. 2.44; Krause, ZCPhil. 17.34; Walde-Hofmann 433. The Irish equative (lerithir inso 'as zealous') is also formed by means of -tri. As to meaning one may compare Skt. aśva-tará- 'mule' ('a kind of horse'), Lat. mātertera 'maternal aunt' (‘a kind of mother‘).

22 Cf. Gk. έαρινός: Lat. vērnus, Gk. έσπϵριvός: Lat. vesperna.

23 Sommer believes in an original -(s)teros which changed to -(s)tri-s by analogy with caelestis; he analyzes the latter word as *cailo-st-ti-s, IF 11.24. See also Brugmann, IF 12.183, 1851.

24 Fraenkel, Nomina agentis 2.152; Chantraine, Formation des noms en grec 339 ff.

25 Grdr.2 2.1.416; WP 2.455.

26 Walde–Hofmann 144, Ital. *kalovos (cf. vi-ti-um ‘fault, defect, blemish, viec, etc.‘).

27 Specht, Der Ursprung der idg. Deklination 201: Skt. upástha- ‘lap’, ava-s-thâm ‘penis’, ava-s- ‘cunnus’.

28 Leskien, Altbulg. Gr. §67.4, Nom. 572; Meillet-Vaillant, SC 368; Schleicher, Lit. Gr. 144; Endzelin, Lett. Gr. §210 f.; Vondrak, Vgl. SG2 1.598 ff.; Kurschat, Gr. §355.

29 Fraenkel, Syntax lit. Kasus 211.

30 Endzelin LG §157.

31 Leskien, Nom. 413–4.

32 Endzelin 265 ff. is not certain about the morphology of these nouns.

33 Cf. also Slav. -ěn-, graždane: gradŭ; Leskien, Altbulg. Gr. 75 f., 92 f.; Vondrak, VSG2 1.531, 529 ff.

34 Brugmann, Grdr.2 2.1.273 ff.