The Greek Diminutive Suffix -lOy.o- -i6xi]-. 145 



8. According to Brugmann, then, the oldest use of the suffix 

 was to form adjectives from adjectives with the meaning ' ap- 

 proximating the condition designated by the primitive.' If -is- is 

 really the comparative suffix there is no doubt that the primitive 

 must have originally been an adjective, and that the force of the 

 suffix must have been as described. At first sight, however, the 

 •statement that the earliest stratum of words in -isko- must have 

 come from adjective primitives seems to be in contradiction to 

 the state of affairs in the actual languages, since only in the Latin 

 and the Germanic certain adjective primitives are found, and in 

 the Latin the whole category comprises only three words, while 

 in the Germanic words like O. H. G. altisc are really very rare 

 compared to the large number formed from substantive primitives. 

 But we must bear in mind that of the three language groups in 

 which the suffix is frequent, each has followed its own line of 

 development, the Greek usage (diminutives) is widely different 

 from the Germanic (adjectives of Ukeness and descent), while the 

 Slavic again partakes of the nature of both, and moreover, borrow- 

 ing of some uses from the Germanic is suspected. ^ Probably, 

 therefore, the productivity of the suffix is due to causes affecting 

 these individual language groups, while the parent language was 

 rather on the stage of the Latin, i, e. it had only a few words - 

 ending in the suffix, and these entirely or predominatingly derived 

 from adjectives. 



9. I should, however, take exception to Brugmann's statement 

 that the conglutinate in the beginning formed only adjectives.^ 

 Though the -is- must have been added to an adjective primitive, 

 yet the -ko- was from L E. times a substantival* as well as an 

 adjectival suffix. Consequently Lat. lentiscus ' mastic tree ' was 

 not necessarily an original adjective, but was from the beginning 

 a thing which was ' rather tough,' and Gr. v£avi<7xo? could from 

 the beginning have been ' he who is rather young ' (: *v£av6?) as 

 well as have been ' rather young ' and secondarily substantivized. 

 We should therefore really extend Brugmann's statement to the 

 effect that -isko- in I. E. times formed substantives as well as 



1 Cf. Brugmann, op. cit. 502. 



2 Just what these were is totally uncertain. There is not a single word 

 in -isko- which occurs in several language groups, and thus would allow us to 

 assume I.E. origin. 



^ Op. cit. 503. 



* Cf. Brugmann, op. cit 669; for the Skt. Whitney. Skt. Gram.* 1222. 



