PIE Noun

[cenysor]

How do I form a PIE noun out of a PIE root and how do I know what gender it has and how it is declined?

All I can find on the internet are PIE root lists but only few actual nouns (or verbs or adjectives...)

[Morrígan]

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Indo-European_noun

How you form a noun from a root depends on what the noun is.

Agents in *-ter
Instruments in *-tro- *-dlo- *-dro- and et al.

There are some neuter forms in *-men- and *-uen- and some animate forms also.

[cenysor]

Agents in *-ter
Instruments in *-tro- *-dlo- *-dro- and et al.

There are some neuter forms in *-men- and *-uen- and some animate forms also.

But how do I know what the nominative singular ending of the suffixed stem looks like, whether the noun is declined thematic or athematic and what gender it has?

[Etherman]

But how do I know what the nominative singular ending of the suffixed stem looks like, whether the noun is declined thematic or athematic and what gender it has?

A root might form different words through suffixing different stems. For example, the root *wlk "wolf" was a thematic noun for a male wolf but could have a *-iH or *-eh2 suffix for a female wolf. The related root *wlp "fox" likewise has forms based on *-iH and *-e/o, but Latin has *-eh1.

It's often simply not clear what the gender was or which stem types were used. Some stem types were extended through analogy. The thematic paradigm was often extended to roots that didn't originally use it. In German, some root nouns were analogically made into u-stems based on the accusative in -um (< *-m).

Starostin's database

http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/query. ... g&morpho=0

can be a big help because words with the stem(s) are given as examples.

Beekes' book also has a table which relates stem types to gender and accent class:

Hysterodynamic m/f: (k), t, nt, s, h1, h2, r, (l), (m), n, i, u
Proterodynamic n: s, r/n, (l/n), n, (i), u
Proterodynamic m/f: (h2), i, u
Static m/f: (t), nt, r, (i)
Static n: r/n

Stems in parentheses are rare.

[Dewrad]

Download this. It is a free book all about Indo-European linguistics. It may help you.

[makvas]

Rapidshare? seriously? why not something like http://filebin.ca/ ?

Sorry, I know I'm off topic. Just all the ads and waiting to download annoys me. It should be a warning like any link to a pdf.

[Dewrad]

Rapidshare? seriously? why not something like http://filebin.ca/ ?

Sorry, I know I'm off topic. Just all the ads and waiting to download annoys me. It should be a warning like any link to a pdf.

You want to look in the mouth of this horse I'm going to give you as well?

[Octavià]

Thank you very much. You saved me 26€, the price of a printed copy in my local bookstore.

[Bristel]

Download this. It is a free book all about Indo-European linguistics. It may help you.

Thank you very much Dewrad, never found that book before.

It will help me with my PIE conlang project, if I decide to get back into it.