Proto-Indo-European Nom.-Acc. Dual and the Germanic Dual of nouns / Праиндоевропейский им.-вин. падеж двойственного числа существительных и двойственное число существительных в германских языках

Abstract

In this article, I present a brief outline of Proto-Indo-European endings of nouns in the nom.- acc. dual and discuss the Germanic noun for “breast”, which supposedly had dual forms in Proto-Germanic. OIcel. brjóst n. and OE brēost n. may reflect the dual * breust-ō (< PIE * -ō , the dual of thematic nouns). Because of the homonymy with the neuter nom.-acc. plural in -ō (< PIE * -ā ), this form was reanalysed as n. pl. and became a thematic neuter (like Goth. daur ‘door’). Goth. brusts directly reflects PGerm. * brust-iz , the athematic plural (like OIcel. dyrr ). OSw. bryst n. is ambiguous because it can reflect PGerm. * breust-ō (dual and pl.), * brust-ī (dual), * brust-iz (pl.). The Proto-Germanic “breast” could originally be a proterokinetic noun with an ablauting root, * breust-/ * brust-. As the inflexional expression of duality is extinct, nouns which denote paired organs can develop alternative ways to express it. The article describes such nouns in Swedish dialects of Estonia.