Proto-Indo-European mn-stems in Balto-Slavic
ENProto-Indo-European mn-stems have partially been preserved as consonant-stems in Balto- Slavic. Neuter mn-stems are found in Slavic and in Old Prussian semen, while masculine mn-stems have been preserved in all branches.1 In this article we will explore a number of other Baltic and Slavic formations which ultimately reflect Indo-European mn-stems. It will be argued that Balto-Slavic has a number of abstract noun formations that are derived from verbs and adjectives by adding two suffixes to the stem. The first suffix is the Indo-European abstract noun suffix *-men-, the second is the Indo-European suffix *-h2-. It is well known that the latter derived three types of nouns in Proto-Indo-European: 1. collectives, 2. abstract nouns, and 3. feminine nouns. Here we are only concerned with the first two functions of the suffix. In these functions, the suffix *-h2- derives nouns that were neutral with respect to the category “number”. As a result, the nouns could end up as neuter plural forms or as singular forms in Indo-European. The ambiguity between singular and plural when it comes to collectives can neatly be demonstrated with the following Balto-Slavic examples.
