Neuter r/n-Stems

Abstract

Abstract In a number of IE languages we find neuter nouns which end in -r (in Inir. also -r;t, -r;k) in the nom./acc.sg., in some derivatives, and sometimes in the nom./acc.pl., but which build the other cases (and some derivatives) to a stem in -n-. Hence the term ‘r/ n-stems’. This mode of inflection is attested only very fragmentarily within the familiar IE languages, but the type is obviously both ancient and important. For one thing, the lexicon involved belongs to the most basic stramm of vocabulary -body parts and words like ‘water’, ‘fire’, ‘blood’, and ‘day’. For another, though any given language has only a handful of such items, there is little lexical agreement from language to language, so that even though the type is attested only in scraps, the sum of words pointing to r/ n-inflection is considerable. The original, unaltered, mode of inflection is scantily attested within the familiar IE languages: L femur, feminis ‘thigh’ (remodeled femoris also oc­ curs); U utur acc. ‘water’, une abl. < ‘udni or ‘udneH1; or Ved. fidhar nom./ acc. ‘udder’, fidhnas gen. Less obvious, though in fact relatively untampered-with, is the G type vowp, voarnc;- ‘water’ and 1rap, ij1raroc;- ‘liver’, in which the stem -ar- somehow continues “-1J- (288).