-ք
Armenian
Etymology
From Old Armenian -ք (-kʻ). The -եք (-ekʻ) in երեխեք (erexekʻ) and other words ending in -ա (-a) developed from Old Armenian -այք (-aykʻ), through the regular sound change այ (ay) → ե (e); thus Old Armenian երեխայք (erexaykʻ) → Armenian երեխեք (erexekʻ).
Pronunciation
- (Eastern Armenian, standard) IPA(key): [-kʰ]
- (Western Armenian, standard) IPA(key): [-kʰ]
Suffix
-ք • (-kʻ)
- (colloquial, dialectal) plural nominative case marker for words suffixed with -ցի (-cʻi) and certain others
- forming nouns
Derived terms
References
- Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009) Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian (London Oriental and African Language Library; 14), Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 65
Old Armenian
Etymology
The origin is uncertain. What follows is Matasović’s summary of opinions, word for word (adjusted for Wiktionary style).[1]
Some scholars (e.g. Meillet and Godel) take the obvious course and derive it from Proto-Indo-European *-s [the masculine-feminine plural nominative case ending], but the sound development of word final *-s to *-kʿ is not universally accepted, though it may be supported by the development of PIE *treyes (“three”) (Latin trēs) > Arm. երեք (erekʻ), and *kʷetwores > Arm. չորք (čʻorkʻ). Other linguists assume a pronominal particle added to the bare stem, but the origin of that particle has never been explained. A recent hypothesis derives the morpheme *-kʿ- from the agglutinated Proto-Indo-European *dwoh₁ (“two”); it would have been originally a dual marker, subsequently replacing the inherited plural. It is worth noting another possibility, although it is a mere speculation: the plural marker *-kʿ can be regularly derived from *-s-wes, with the ending of the u-stems *-w-es agglutinated to the regular Nom[inative] plural marker *-s (cf. the Vedic agglutinated Nom[inative] pl[ural] in -ās-as, e.g. अश्वासस् (aśvāsas)).
Suffix
-ք • (-kʻ)
Derived terms
Descendants
- Armenian: -ք (-kʻ)
References
- Matasović, Ranko (2009) A Grammatical Sketch of Classical Armenian, Zagreb, page 19
Further reading
- Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010) Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, second edition, Oxford: Blackwell, page 388
- Godel, Robert (1975) An introduction to the study of classical Armenian, Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, page 102