Original scientific paper
Collectives in -ьje in Slavic
Ranko Matasović
Abstract
This paper refutes the received opinion that the Slavic collective suffix -ьje should be derived
from a putative PIE suffix *-iyo-. It is argued that the suffix -ьje is a regular development
of the PIE collective formant *-ey- / -i-, discovered by N. Oettinger (1995, 1999). Besides
Greek and Hittite, this suffix was preserved in Slavic in its original function; moreover,
Proto-Slavic appears to be the only Indo-European language where the suffix remained
at least partially productive.
Keywords
collectives; slavic languages; Proto-slavic language; suffix; archaisms
Hrčak ID:
15873
URI
Publication date:
1.11.2005.
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