Russian edit

Etymology edit

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *-znь. The spelling in the nominative case may have been influenced by Old Church Slavonic -знь (-znĭ), as -зень would probably be expected, compare Czech bázeň, Polish bojaźń, Serbo-Croatian бојазан, Slovene bojazen and Bulgarian боя́зън (bojázǎn) exhibiting -zьnь while deriving from *bojaznь.

Pronunciation edit

Suffix edit

-знь (-znʹ)

  1. suffix appended to verbs to create nouns denoting act, state
    боя́ться (bojátʹsja, to fear, to be afraid (of),) + ‎-знь (-znʹ) → ‎боя́знь (bojáznʹ, fear, phobia)
    жить (žitʹ, to live) + ‎-знь (-znʹ) → ‎жизнь (žiznʹ, life)

Declension edit