Tracing the genealogy of the genitive -ovo in Russian adjectival declension

Abstract

The article addresses a long-standing problem of the history of Russian: the origin of v in place of the etymological g in the Gen. sg. masc./neut. ending of adjectives and non-personal pronouns. This change is treated as conflation of inflectional and derivational morphology through analogy. The analogical substitution first occurred within multi-item personal names where non-Christian (byname) patronymics were used alongside Christian (baptismal) ones. Besides their etymological and morphological differences (quantitative vs. possessive adjectives respectively), the two types of patronymics differed syntactically. Christian patronymics were coordinated with the first name, while non-Christian patronymics were subordinated to the Christian ones as apposition in the Gen. case. If, in addition to the name bearer’s own patronymic/s, his father’s patronymic was used to identify him more precisely, it too would be in the Gen. Written records reveal that the cases of the patronymics were frequently confused, and both types eventually became coordinated with the first name. This triggered an abductive innovation, whereby the derivational morpheme—the possessive adjective-forming suffix -ov- —of one type of patronymics contaminated the Gen. ending -ogo, as well as the Nom. -oj in another type. The formant -ov- became the morphological marker of a Russian surname, while the new Gen. ending spread to regular adjectives.