Blair Collection > Celtic studies

18 Introduction.
11. PsEUDO, OR Derivative Stems.
3. Stems formed by the addition of 3. Stems formed by the addition of
a derivational suffix ending in a a derivational suffix, ending
vowel, to an already fully-formed consonantally, to an already
stem. fully-formed stem.
§. 5. Of Vocalic Stems.
Pure Stems. All monosyllabic nouns may, strictly speaking,
be considered to be pure stem-words, in wliicli the nominal sign
is directly affixed to the stem without any intervening phonetic
material. Such nouns occur in the Greek and Latin, though
they are not numerous.
GREEK: root Kt, stcm k7, noun K.[-q (masc. gen. Kt-oc)> ypawc
(ypa-oc) ; Spuc> ^^c (roots Spv, 0o, stems Spu, 0w) possess still
more of the character of pm-e stems. Some forms usually included
under this category are undoubtedly not primitive pure vocalic
stems ; for example, ^ovq may perhaps be more properly reckoned
among the consonantal stems, as it stands for (5of-q (root bo).
LATIN. In the Latin there are extremely few forms which can
be considered, strictly speaking, as pure vocalic stems. Perhaps
the only form is grus, stem gini., for it is doubtful whether the r
in the plural vt-r-es of ins (stcm vh'f), — and in the old form of the
genitive sueris (su-er-is) of sws, Sanskrit, su-Jcara, — be not organic
instead of being, as is generally supposed, merely euphonic.
GOTHIC. In the Gothic a number of such monosyllabic
words, belonging to what is called the strong declension, is to
be found ; in the masculine and feminine they have the nomina-
tive sign s, while in the neuter no suffix can be found, and the
stem accordingly occurs in its naked form, e.g. : masc. Jisk-s,
dag-s, halg-s; fem. anst-s; and ncut. leik. These nouns corres-
pond with the Greek nouns derived from consonantal stems:
Bqi^, a'('^, TTup, and the Latin noiuis urh-s, pon-s., mel. In the
nominative case, the analogy is complete; but if we compare
them through all their cases, we shall find that in the Greek
and Latin the nouns of this kind affix the case-endings to the
stem in exactly the same way throughout, namely, its nomi-
native directly, and the others by means of a copulative vowel,
which is the same in all the cases, while the Gothic norms
take different vowels in the plural. For example :
Nom. and Voc. . . fisko-s balgc-is
Gen. . . fiskd balge
Dat. . . fiska-m balgi-m
Ace. . . fiska-ns balgi-ns.
It would appear from this, that the Gothic nouns under con-
sidei-ation are only rehcs of more primitive forms, still preserved