Saami -(š)goahti inchoatives: their variation, history, and suggested cognates in Veps and Mordvin

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33340/susa.75718

Keywords:

Saami, Mordvin, Finnic, derivation, affixation, historical morphology

Abstract

The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to give an overview of the morphological and areal variation of the Saami deverbal inchoative suffixes (North Saami -goahti- and -šgoahti-), and second, to give an updated account of the history of said suffixes. To achieve the latter, a critical survey is made of previous literature dealing with these Saami suffixes as well as the phonetically and semantically similar derivational suffixes in Mordvin (Erzya -kado-, -gado-) and in Veps and Ludic (-gande-, -škande- ~ -gade-, -škade-). Several kinds of etymological cognate or loan relations between these suffixes have been posited. In the present paper, however, it is argued that the Saami -goahti- suffix is not related to other Uralic suffixes, but instead results from the affixation of an independent verb (North Saami boahtit ‘to come’). The -š- element attaching to the suffix is explained as a remnant of another derivational suffix still found as an independent inchoative marker -ahtja- present from South Saami up to Lule Saami.

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Published

2019-05-02

How to Cite

Kuokkala, J. (2019). Saami -(š)goahti inchoatives: their variation, history, and suggested cognates in Veps and Mordvin. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja, 2019(97), 153–181. https://doi.org/10.33340/susa.75718