Proto-Indo-European Nom.-Acc. Dual and the Germanic Dual of nouns

Alexander Mankov (Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow / St. Tikhons Orthodox University for the Humanities, Moscow; mankov@iling-ran.ru)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 21/3-4, 2023 - p.178-183

Abstract: In this article, I present a brief outline of Proto-Indo-European endings of nouns in the nom.-acc. dual and discuss the Germanic noun for 'breast', which supposedly had dual forms in Proto-Germanic. OIcel. brjóst n. and OE brēost n. may reflect the dual *breust-ō (< PIE *-ō, the dual of thematic nouns). Because of the homonymy with the neuter nom.-acc. plural in -ō (< PIE *-ā), this form was reanalysed as n. pl. and became a thematic neuter (like Goth. daur 'door'). Goth. brusts directly reflects PGerm. *brust-iz, the athematic plural (like OIcel. dyrr). OSw. bryst n. is ambiguous because it can reflect PGerm. *breust-ō (dual and pl.), *brust-ī (dual), *brust-iz (pl.). The Proto-Germanic 'breast' could originally be a proterokinetic noun with an ablauting root, *breust-/*brust-. As the inflexional expression of duality is extinct, nouns which denote paired organs can develop alternative ways to express it. The article describes such nouns in Swedish dialects of Estonia.

Keywords: nominative and accusative dual, Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Germanic

PDF