*-anaz

The suffix *-anaz most likely has two different historical origins that merged into one in Proto-Germanic. This strong verb past participle form developed from an earlier form, pre-Germanic *onó-s, from a remodeling of the Proto-Indo-European verbal adjective suffix *nó-s. It appears as though the original -o- of the pre-Germanic suffix was secondary, not part of the inherited PIE form; Ringe believes that it may have been added analogically with the pre-Germanic infinitival suffix *o-no-m > PGmc *-aną. However, it is still not completely clear why the remodeling occurred. In any case, the resulting form, *-anaz, became the productive past participle suffix for all strong verbs. One example of this formation can be seen in Sanskrit verbal adjectives in -न (-ná), which preserve the original PIE *-nó- formation. The suffix *inaz < Proto-Germanic *enō-s was another variant of this past participle suffix. This variant is found in North and West Germanic. (Ringe 2017: 188, 217–218).

In the case of nominal uses of *anaz, such as the names of rulers or other individuals identified by their relationship to a group or territory, the suffix probably originated as a thematicizing individualizing n-stem created by adding the Proto-Indo-European suffix *-n- to an existing noun stem. Generally speaking, when used denominally, n-stems were used to indicate 'someone associated with X'. Pronk (2015: 327–29) explicitly includes Gothic 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽𐍃 (þiudans) < PGmc *þeudanaz in this category. Thematicization of *-n- would produce a Late PIE/Early PGmc *-on-o-s > PGmc *-anaz. There are comparable Indo-European structures, such as Ancient Greek υἱωνός (huiōnós) and Latin dominus; however, there is still some debate about the histories of suffix in these words.