Complex Caland Formations

AbstractThis chapter discusses the recessive accentuation of occasional adjectives with primary -ro- and -no-, and of all adjectives of material with -ino- and adjectives with -(s)uno-, -imo-, and -umo-. Recessive accentuation in adjectives with primary -ro- and -no-, in so far as it can be explained, is due to relatively idiosyncratic properties of the individual words. The consistent recessive accentuation of words with -ino- (the material suffix), -(s)uno-, -imo-, and -umo- obviously cannot be explained on this basis. It is argued that these four suffixes are originally complex Caland suffixes, while the -ino- forming finally accented spatial or temporal adjectives (type pukinós ‘compact’, earinós ‘of spring’) has a non-Caland -i. Root accentuation (becoming Greek recessive accentuation) is argued to be inherited in complex Caland formations, and perhaps other endocentric formations.