*-niz

Runic: ᚾᛁᛉ Pronunciation: /niz/

suffix · forms nouns · feminine · i-stem

Function

forms feminine abstract, action, or result nouns from verbal roots and stems

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *-ni-s, a suffix that formed verbal adjectives and nouns, usually directly from full-grade verbal roots. Krahe and Meid (1969: 115–18) compare forms such as Sanskrit वह्नि॑ (váhni), Lithuanian šlaunis, and Latin clūnis. In Proto-Germanic, direct inherited *-nis was fully productive only in Gothic. The suffix became newly productive as a verbal abstract suffix with weak verbs, where it was added to the present stem: Weak class 1 *-īniz from pre-Germanic *-eye-nis or *-iye-nis, Weak class 2 *-ōniz from pre-Germanic *-eh₂(ye)-nis, and Weak class 3 *-ainiz from pre-Germanic *-oye-ni-s, becoming PGmc *-īniz , *-ōniz, and *-ainiz, all secondary class-specific formations (Krahe & Meid 1969: 115–18). A variant *sniz- was appended to roots with a final dental consonant (Lühr 1989: 56).

Paradigm

CaseSingularPlural
Nom.-niz-nīz
Acc.-nį-ninz
Gen.-nīz-njǫ̂, -nijǫ̂
Dat.-nī-nimaz
Inst.-nī-nimiz
Voc.-ni-nīz

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Descendants

  • *-ni, *-sni (Proto-West Germanic)
    • *-ni, -sni (Old Saxon)
      • -e (Middle Low German)
  • *-ni, *-sni (Proto-West Germanic)
    • -en, -n, -sen, -sn (Old English)
      • -en, -sen, -sne (Middle English)
        • -e, -en, -zen (English)
        • -sen, -zen (Scots)
  • -n, -sn (Old Norse)
    • -n (Faroese)
    • -n, -sn (Icelandic)
    • -n, -nn (Norwegian Nynorsk)
    • -nn (Norwegian Bokmål)
  • -n, -sn (Old Norse)
    • -n (Old Danish)
      • -n (Danish)
  • -n, -sn (Old Norse)
    • -n (Old Swedish)
      • -en, -n (Swedish)
  • -𐌽𐍃 (-ns), -𐍃𐌽𐍃 (-sns) (Gothic)

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