Reconstruction:Proto-Tungusic/-r

This Proto-Tungusic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Tungusic

Alternative forms

  • *-l (an allomorph, but more primary and common)

Etymology

According to Janhunen, the consonantal suffixes *-r and *-l were probably the "original" plural markes in Proto-Tungusic, and may have been so in Pre-Proto-Tungusic, as well. Traces of both *-r and *-l can be found also in those modern languages that synchronically use more complex plural markers.

The suffix *-r is, for instance, likely to be represent in the numeral *ʒȫr (“two”), which retains the final *-r in all languages except those that change it regularly to *-l (as in Negidal ӡӯл (ʒūl)) or lose it altogether (as in Manchu ᠵᡠᠸᡝ (juwe)).

Suffix

*-r

  1. Plural ending of stems ending in *-n.
    ‎*oran (“deer”) + ‎*-r → ‎*orar (“deers”)
    ‎*murin (“horse”) + ‎*-r → ‎*murir (“horses”)

See also

  • *-gir (“plural ending of tribal names ending with *-gin”)
  • *-l (“plural ending of stems ending with vowel”)
  • *-sa (“class marker refers to homogenous masses (uncountables)”)
    • *-sa-l (“collective plural maker”)
  • *-ta
    • *-ta-l (“complex plural marker”)

Descendants

  • Jurchenic:
    • Manchu: -ᡵᡳ (-ri) (as in ᠮᠠᡶᠠᡵᡳ (mafari, “grandfathers, ancestors”))
  • Tungusic:
    • Northern Tungusic:
      • Even: -р (-r)
      • Evenki: -р (-r)
      • Solon: -r

References

  • Nicholas Poppe (1952) “Plural Suffixes in the Altaic Languages”, in Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher‎[1], page 75
  • Vovin, Alexander, Janhunen, Juha, de la Fuente, José Andrés Alonso (2023) The Tungusic Languages (Routledge Language Family Series), Abingdon: Routledge, page 52
  • Benzing, Johannes (1955) Die tungusischen Sprachen. Versuch einer vergleichenden Grammatik (Abhandlungen der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse; 11) (in German), Wiesbaden: Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz in Kommission bei Franz Steiner Verlag, page 75
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