See also: ք and Ք

Armenian

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Etymology

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From Old Armenian (-kʻ). The -եք (-ekʻ) in երեխեք (erexekʻ) and other words ending in (-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

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Suffix

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(-kʻ)

  1. (colloquial, dialectal) plural nominative case marker for words suffixed with -ցի (-cʻi) and certain others
    երեխեքerexekʻnominative plural of երեխա (erexa)
    բանկեքbankekʻnominative plural of բանկա (banka)
    գյուղացիքgyuġacʻikʻnominative plural of գյուղացի (gyuġacʻi)
    վրացիքvracʻikʻnominative plural of վրացի (vracʻi)
  2. forming nouns

Derived terms

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See also

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References

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  • 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

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Etymology

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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

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(-kʻ)

  1. plural nominative case marker
    շունքšunkʻnominative plural of շուն (šun)
  2. forming names of countries
    հայhayan Armenian
    հայքhaykʻthe Armenians collectively
    ՀայքHaykʻArmenia, the country of Armenians

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Armenian: (-kʻ)

References

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  1. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) A Grammatical Sketch of Classical Armenian[1], Zagreb, page 19

Further reading

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  • 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