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UDC 811.124
Philologia Classica. 2017. Vol. 12. Fasc. 1
THE ORIGIN OF G. S. HOMINIS, CARDINIS, ORDINIS (G. S. OF -N STEM -Onis vs. -inis)
Evgeniy G. Filimonov
Saint Petersburg State University, 7-9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation; evfilimonov@yandex.ru
The paper deals with an oddity in Latin morphology: the fact that a number of nouns (margo, ordo, cardo, homo and nemo), in spite of being masculine, have, contrary to the general tendency, the G. S. in -inis instead of -onis. Some of the nouns (margo, ordo, cardo), unlike the other masculine nouns, retained their original G. S. form in -inis (which traces back to Old Latin *-ones) presumably due to analogy with the large group of feminine nouns in -do, -go because they have the same consonant at the end of stem. The G. S. of another exception, homo, is explained by analogy with the neuter nouns of the type nomen, nominis. The author also argues that the majority of G. S.-onis of feminina abstracta in -io (type natio, -onis) can be explained phonologically without referring to their gender. Refs 8.
Keywords: historical grammar of Latin, Latin -n stem nouns.
1. Some Latin -n stem nouns in -o have G. S. in -onis, while others have G. S. in -inis. The reason for this irregularity is not fully addressed in Latin grammars. It is normally said that -inis is a phonetically conditioned development of the earlier *-on-es, whereas -onis is an analogical innovation in which the vowel length of -o- spread throughout the paradigm by analogy from -o of N. S. It is unclear, however, why the spread of the -o did not affect all of the -n stem nouns. E. g. I. M. Tronsky does not discuss this issue when writing about -n stem nouns: "The alternation between N. in -o- and G. in -inis was retained in such words as homo (and its compound nemo) cardo, margo, ordo, turbo, virgo and in the nouns with the suffixes -do, -go: cupido, altitudo, vorago; as far as the other masculine nouns in -o- and the nouns with the suffix -io are concerned, the length of -o-spread throughout the entire paradigm: latro G. latronis; natio, G. nationis; in archaic Latin there occur hemonem (P. F. 89. 8), homonem (Enn. Ann. 138)."1 Authoritative historical grammars of Latin tend to merely describe the fact of the distribution -onis / -inis without entering into the individual history of particular nouns, which is understandable considering the breadth of material. When such attempts are made, only some of the nouns are covered. E. g. P. Baldi proposes an explanation for the prehistoric alternation in the suffix -en- / -on- in homo, caro, cardo,2 but writes little on -n stems as a whole: "in stems ending in -on, the final nasal is lost, and the o is mostly generalized throughout the paradigm: cf. ratio gen. rationis 'reason, sermo, sermonis 'speech'."3 M. Weiss writes at length on "a number of varieties" of -n- stems,4 and on the individual development of homo (ibid. 468, 105, 281, 310), but little on the -onis / -inis distribution itself. A. Sihler divides all the Latin masculine and feminine n-stems into three groups: the first group is composed of a single noun caro carnis f. 'meat', with "(t)he apparent zero grade of the suffix throughout the
1 Tronsky 2001, 166.
2 Baldi 2002, 302.
3 Ibid. 323.
4 Weiss 2009, 309-313.
© St. Petersburg State University, 2017
paradigm".5 The second group, which has full grade generalized in place of zero grade, includes a few predominantly feminine primary nouns (e.g. cardo, -inis f. 'hinge', homo, -inis m. 'man') and a number of feminine composite affixes (-tùdô, -tudinis; -ago, -aginis and others). The third group comprises the majority of non-neuter n-stems which have generalized -o- from N. S., e.g. crabro 'charcoal', caupo 'shopkeeper'. Sihler concludes: "The nouns in simple -on- are almost all masc.; the few feminine are mostly names — Iuno, and loan words from the Gr. Sapfè class, such as Gorgô, Gorgè. A few fem. n-stem nouns are seen in sublimated forms, for example the deity Bellona. The two main fem. classes in this type are morphological complexes: (1) the vigorously productive affix -tion-, which is historically an agglutination of the on-stem and fem. ti-stem nomina actionis: ratio (reor) 'reckoning, mentio 'mention', natio 'birth, race', actio 'motion', and also -actio, -ïtiô-, and so on. ... (2) A large but closed class of verbal abstracts in -io: legio 'legion' (*'levy', from lego), regio 'line, direction' (from rego)"6
2. It is not at all clear from these accounts, why "the nouns in simple -on- are almost all masculine", and I do not know of any attempt to explain this phenomenon. A possible explanation would be that the analogical spreading of -o- from N. S. throughout the paradigm was used in Latin as a marker for distinguishing masculine nouns from feminine and neutral nouns. The explanation, however, poses two questions: 1) why the nouns homo, cardo, margo, ordo, turbo did not follow the suit of the other masculine nouns; 2) why the numerous feminine nouns in -io, -(t)io presumably underwent the change characteristic of masculine nouns. These questions remain unanswered, which precludes the possibility of formulating a simple rule and necessitates complex definitions. Thus, A. Ernout proposes a correlation between gender and G. S. suffixes -onis or -inis rather than a rule: "Ont le génitif en -onis tous les masculins (sauf cardo, homo, et son composé nëmô, margo, ordo, turbo, Apollo), et tous les abstraits féminins, comme natio -onis, ou masculins, comme pugio, -onis. Sauf les masculins cités plus haut, tous les génitifs en -inis appartiennent à des mots féminins à nominatif en -o, comme virgô."7
3. In my opinion, G. S.-onis of feminina abstracta in -io (type natio, -onis) can be explained phonologically — without referring to their gender. G. S. in -inis would have resulted in a morphologically unclear form in -ïnis (*natiinis > *natinis ??). Thus, -onis allows to avoid the form in -inis that would deviate from the normal consonant declension pattern whereby G. S. is one syllable longer than N. S. Forms in -inis could also lead to an undesirable ambiguity: e.g. a hypothetical G. S. from latio 'a bearing, bringing' would be *latinis, a form partially homophonous with D.-Abl. Pl. Latinis. Note that, all the nouns which have -i- before -on- always end in G. S. in -ionis -io irrespective of their gender and abstractness: legio — legionis (f.), natio — nationis (f.), dissensio — dissensionis (f.), scipio — scipionis (m.), pugio — pugionis (f.).
4. The explanation of G. S.-inis (instead of the expected -onis) in the nouns homo, cardo, margo, ordo, turbo cannot be universal, as homo stands apart from the other four nouns. The form with -o- homonem is attested by Ennius (Ann. 138) and supported by Osk. humuns (< *homones). It shows that the -o- spread from N. S. to some of the other cases, but eventually for some reason the form with a short -o- prevailed. It might have been either the high frequency of homo or the influence of neuter nouns such as nomen,
5 Sihler 1995, 296.
6 Ibid. 295-296.
7 Ernout 1914, 70-71.
nominis that could have prevented the generalization of the long -o- throughout the paradigm. It seems likely that both factors contributed to the result. The neuter nouns could not have influenced the N. and A. forms of homo because they have other endings in these cases (cf. homo and hominem — nomen, homines — nomina), therefore we find the long -o- in A. S. (hemonem Fest., homonem Enn.) and can reconstruct N. A. Pl. homones on the basis of Osk. humuns — the forms in which neuter nouns could not be the source of analogy for homo. Among the -on- forms besides N. and A. only G. Pl. homonum is attested (Novius, Atellanae 88).
5. The stages of development of homo can thus be reconstructed as follows: the original declension of homo had an alternation -en-/on-: N. S. *hemon / G. S hemenes,8 with the short -o- later spreading from N. S. *hemon to the other cases of the paradigm.9 After the N. S. developed a long -o in *hemo *(< *hemon), this new long vowel tried to penetrate the other cases of the paradigm, but failed. Eventually -o- in hemonis underwent a regular phonetic change resulting in the classical form hominis.
6. Cardo, margo,10 ordo, turbo require a different explanation. The table below shows that either ending (-inis or -onis) can be used after each stem consonant except -t and -c, which are only used with -onis (feminina are given in bold).
7. The words in -do, -donis are normally of Greek origin (spado, -onis), Latin dever-batives (edo, -onis, mando, -onis) or denominatives (Pedo, -onis, praedo, -onis), and all of them denote persons. On the contrary, none of the nouns in -do, -dinis denotes a person. The words in -go, -gonis are all of Greek origin, and therefore have -onis instead of -inis. The exception ligo, -onis forms a special group with the suffix -on-, which M. Leumann calls "Werkzeuge".11 Runco — runconis also belongs to this group. Burdo, -onis is classified by Leumann as a loan word. Turbo, -inis is difficult to account for.
8. Because ordo, cardo, margo do not denote a person and have the same end stem consonant as the group of abstract feminine nouns with the suffixes -go, -do, they followed their morphological pattern for G. S.-inis variant. The noun virgo, -inis is the only noun from the right column which denotes a person. Virgo, -inis fits into neither of the columns and belongs together with homo, ordo, cardo to the archaic group of nouns with G. S.-in-is.12 Its morphological structure and meaning differ from both Latin deverbatives (edo, -onis) and Latin denominatives (Pedo, -onis). The nouns in -co, -conis and in -to, -tonis do not have any counterparts in the right column, which makes the nouns in -do, -dinis and -go, -ginis a more consolidated group in comparison to the more diverse noun group with G. S.-onis.
8 Baldi 2002, 302.
9 Baldi (ibid.) explains the -in- in hominis as the result of "vowel weakening from full-grade -en-", admitting, however, the possibility "that the o-grade is continued throughout the paradigm". Such forms as homullus (< *homonelos) and homunculus (< *homonecolos) speak in favour of this possibility (cf. Weiss 2009, 281).
10 Cardo and margo are also attested as feminine nouns (Ernout, Meillet 1985, 99, 387), (Walde, Hoffmann 1938, I, 166; II, 39). The simplest explanation would be to suppose that these nouns were originally feminine, and only later, because of their concrete meaning, changed their gender to masculine. However, this is difficult to prove with certainty.
11 Leumann 1977, 363.
12 Leumann (ibid.) calls this group "altertümliche Flexion -o, -inis".
G. S. in -onis G. S in -inis
spado — spadonis 'eunuch' ordo — ordinis 'order'
edo — edonis 'glutton' cardo — cardinis 'hinge'
Pedo — Pedonis n. pr. 'splay-foot' testudo — testudinis 'tortoise'
praedo — praedonis 'pirate' consuetudo — consuetudinis 'habit'
burdo — burdonis 'mule' hirundo — hirundinis 'swallow'
mando — mandonis 'glutton' (h)arundo — (h)arundinis 'reed'
grando — grandinis 'hail'
crepido — crepidinis 'base'
Gnatho — Gnathonis n. pr. 'the name of a parasite'
capito — capitonis 'big-headed'
fronto — frontonis 'with a broad forehead'
mento — mentonis 'long-chin'
Iuno, -onis 'Juno'
ligo — ligonis 'hoe' margo — marginis 'edge'
Aegon — Aegonis 'the Aegean sea' lanugo — lanuginis 'woolly substance'
Old Latin Gorgo, -onis 'Gorgo' virgo — virginis 'maid'
siltgo — siltginis 'winter-wheat'
propago — propaginis 'off-spring'
ortgo — ortginis 'beginning'
Alcon — Alconis n. pr. 'Alcon'
Laco — Laconis 'Laconian'
praeco — praeconis 'herald'
draco — draconis 'serpent'
runco — runconis 'grubbing-hoe'
bubo — bubonis 'owl' turbo — turbinis 'whirl-wind'
strabo — strabonis 'with oblique eyes'
carbo — carbonis 'coal'
9. To conclude, the origin of -inis in the five nouns margö, ördö, cardö, homö, nemo remains uncertain. For some nouns there can be another explanation, e.g. margö and cardö could have been feminine nouns at the time of the generalization of -ö- from N. S. and consequently would not have undergone this analogy which was a marker of masculine nouns (except for the nouns in -iö, -iönis). However, I think there is more evidence in support of the analogical explanation for all the five nouns: the analogy of the neuter nouns of the type nomen, nominis for homö, and the analogy of feminine nouns in -dö, -gö for margö, ördö, cardö.
References
Baldi P. The Foundation of Latin. Berlin, New York, Mouton de Gruyter, 2002. Ernout A. Morphologie historique du latin. Paris, Klincksieck, 1914.
Ernout A., Meillet A. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine. Paris, Klincksieck, 41985.
Leumann M., Szantyr A., Otto W. Lateinische Grammatik. Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre. Bd. I.
München, C. H. Beck, 1977. Sihler A. New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. New York, Oxford. Oxford University Press 1995.
Tronsky I. M. Istoricheskaia grammatika latinskogo iazyka. Obshcheindoevropeiskoe iazykovoe sostoianie (voprosy rekonstruktsii). [The Historical Grammar of Latin. The Common Indo-European Language Stage (Questions of Reconstruction)] (In Russian). Moscow, Indrik, 2001. Walde A., Hoffmann J. B. Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg, Winter, 31938. Weiss M. Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin. Ann Arbor — New York, Beech Stave Press 2009.
For citation: Evgeniy G. Filimonov. The Origin of G. S. hominis, cardinis, ordinis (G.S. of -N Stem -onis vs. -inis). Philologia Classica 2017, 12(1), 54-58. DOI: 10.21638/11701/spbu20.2017.107.
ПРОИСХОЖДЕНИЕ G. S. HOMINIS, CARDINIS, ORDINIS (G. S.-N ОСНОВ -ONIS VS.-INIS)
Евгений Геннадиевич Филимонов
Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, Российская Федерация, 199034, Санкт-Петербург, Университетская наб., 7-9; evfilimonov@yandex.ru
В статье объясняются так называемые исключения по роду атематического склонения латинских существительных с основой на -n (margo, ordo, cardo, homo, nemo), которые, согласно общей тенденции, должны были бы иметь исход не на -inis, а, как и другие слова мужского рода, на -onis. Предлагается аналогическое объяснение: для margo, ordo, cardo — влияние слов женского рода -do, -go, а для homo — слов среднего рода типа nomen, nominis. По мнению автора, G. S.-onis существительных женского рода с абстрактным значением на -io (natio, -onis) следует объяснять фонологически. Библиогр. 8 назв.
Ключевые слова: латинский язык, историческая грамматика, латинские существительные с основой на -n.
Received 20.02.2017 Final version received 11.05.2017
