Reconstruction talk:Proto-Japonic/-(a)ru
Etymology
[edit]The etym currently includes this bit:
...and they have either *-a- or *-ə- before *-r-/-s-, showing that the *-a-/*-ə- must have been part of this suffix.
While interesting, this is not iron-clad, and we should not present it as such. The inclusion of the causative is also strange and confusing.
Another line of inquiry I have seen mentioned elsewhere is that this -ru → -reru spontaneous / passive suffix is an outgrowth of existential / copular verb ari, which itself is theorized to have originally been aru in its predicative / conclusive form. We see plenty of examples of other verbs that undergo a shift to lower-bigrade conjugation, with an accompanying shift in semantics that seems to include a stative / spontaneous shade of meaning, even in cases where the shift to lower-bigrade does not entail a change in transitivity, such as tsuku "to stick something with something else" [momentaneous action], tsukeru "to stick something with something else" [so that it stays stuck]. This -ru suffix may be a manifestation of a similar conjugation shift with aru.
‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig 17:12, 10 April 2024 (UTC)
- Indeed, it must have been a possibility (a suffix cannot just appear right away; it has to be derived from somewhere, considering how initial r does not appear in native Japonic.). Chuterix (talk) 19:07, 10 April 2024 (UTC)