Pluralized Collectives in Young Avestan: A Morphosyntactic Explanation of the Replacement of the YAv. nom.-acc.pl.n. Endings and by -āiš, and -īš

Abstract

This article studies Young Avestan forms in -āiš (formally instr.pl.m./n. of a-stems), (formally nom.-acc.pl.f. of ā-stems) and -īš (formally nom.pl.f. of ī-stems) that are used in contexts where neuter nom.-acc.pl. / collective forms in (a-stems) and (consonantstems) are expected. It is argued that these forms in -āiš, , and -īš are secondarily created pluralizations of original neuter collectives in reaction to the syntactic change according to which their original singular verbal concord is in Young Avestan times changed to plural verbal concord. The choice for forming these newly pluralized collectives with the endings -āiš, , and -īš lies in the fact that these are the plural variants of the singular endings (instr.sg.m./n. of a-stems), (nom.sg.f. of ā-stems) and (nom.sg.f. of ī-stems), respectively, which are formally identical to the collective neuter endings (a-stems) and (consonant-stems). The ‘collective plural’ forms in -āiš, , and -īš can thus be explained through a simple four-part analogy.