*-inī

Runic: ᛁᚾᛁ Pronunciation: /i.niː/

suffix · forms nouns · feminine · ī/jō-stem

Function

forms nouns denoting a female individual, especially the female counterpart of a masculine or common-gender noun; ‘female X’, ‘X-ess’

Etymology

From pre-Germanic *-én-ih₂ ~ *-n̥-yéh₂, an ablauting compound suffix consisting of an Indo-European *n-formant, used in individualizing, appurtenance, and participant-noun formations, plus the Proto-Indo-European feminine suffix *-ih₂ ~ *-yéh₂ (Johnsen 2005a: 143–44). The inherited ablaut gave Proto-Germanic nominative singular *-inī beside oblique *-unjō-, which was later leveled. This explains the mixture of forms seen in the daughter languages: Gothic has isolated -𐌹𐌽𐌹 (-ini), Old Norse has rare -ynja, while West Germanic generalized -in-/-inn- (though Old Saxon also had -unnia- from the oblique form in addition to -in- forms) (Johnsen 2005a: 143–44). The closest Indo-European comparanda are Proto-Slavic *-yni and Indo-Iranian and Celtic formations in -n-ī, especially Sanskrit राज्ञी॑ (rā́jñī) (Monier-Williams 1899: 875) and Proto-Celtic *rīganī. These were both built from the word for ‘king’ with similar -n- + a feminine suffix (Krahe & Meid 1969: 119–22; Matasović 2009a: 311; McCone 1998: 1–5). Latin is a close Italic comparandum, but the exact history of the suffix is uncertain; see for instance Sihler (1995: 278).

Paradigm

CaseSingularPlural
Nom.-inī-unjôz
Acc.-unjǭ-unjōz
Gen.-unjōz-unjǫ̂
Dat.-unjōi-unjōmaz
Inst.-unjō-unjōmiz
Voc.-inī-unjôz

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Descendants

  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -inna (Old Dutch)
      • -inne (Middle Dutch)
        • -in (Limburgish)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -inna (Old Dutch)
      • -inne (Middle Dutch)
        • -in (Dutch)
          • -in (Afrikaans)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -en (Old English)
      • -en (Middle English)
        • -en (English)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • *-in (Old Frisian)
      • -in (North Frisian)
      • -inne (West Frisian)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -in, -inna, -ni (Old High German)
      • -īn, -inne (Middle High German)
        • -in (Alemannic German)
        • -in (German)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -ina, -innia, -unnia (Old Saxon)
      • -inne, -in (Middle Low German)
        • -in (Low German)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -ina, -innia, -unnia (Old Saxon)
      • -inne, -in (Middle Low German)
        • -inna (Old Norse)
          • -inne (Norwegian Bokmål)
          • -inne (Norwegian Nynorsk)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -ina, -unnia (Old Saxon)
      • -inne, -in (Middle Low German)
        • -inna (Old Norse)
          • -inne (Old Danish)
            • -inde (Danish)
  • *-ini (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -ina, -unnia (Old Saxon)
      • -inne, -in (Middle Low German)
        • -inna (Old Norse)
          • -inna (Old Swedish)
            • -inna (Finnish)
            • -inna (Swedish)
  • -ynja (Old Norse)
    • -ynja (Icelandic)
  • -𐌹𐌽𐌹 (-ini) (Gothic)

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