On Adaptation of Suffixes in Congeneric Classes on Substantives Classic Reprint

Excerpt from On Adaptation of Suffixes in Congeneric Classes on Substantives

Various attempts have been made to explain the form, some in recent years, e. G. By Joh. Schmidt in kz. Xxv. 16, and Solmsen ibid. Xxix. 358, note. Iregard them as unsatisfactory and omit their refutation. G. Meyer, Griech. Gramm.2 §3i3, says: 'attisch woég jedenfalls eine Neubildung ist bisher unerkl'art.' Very recently Brugmann, Grundriss ii. 450; griechischeegrammatik, §74, is of the same Opinion. I believe that attic-ionic nom. Mic foot is made in direct imitation of pan-hellenic 68o tooth,1 the point of contact being the meaning: bot/z are parts of the body. Designations of parts of the body exercise strong analogical influence upon one another, and occasionally the suffix of some one of them succeeds in adapting itself so as to be felt the char acteristic element which bestows upon the word its value. That is to say, when such a suffix has spread analogically to a greater or lesser extent within the category, then the meaning of the category may be felt to be dependent upon the special form of the suffix, or, stated conversely, the suffix may be infused with the Special characteristic of the category; after that, when occasion arises to form new words of this same class, the suffix is put into requisition as though it were the essential element which imparts to the word its special significance. This thesis, though stated narrowly for the present only in reference to designations of parts of the body, is sufficiently important to justify our dwelling upon it at length; it will in the end lead us to a much broader field than the one just indicated. First we shall assemble certain cases in which assimilation and adaptation has influenced designations of parts of the body.

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