Baltic Abstracts in *-ī-bā
Baltic Abstracts in *-ī-bā

Summary/Abstract: Baltic abstracts in -ība (e.g. Lith. dial. gyvýba ‘life’ / Latv. dzīvība ‘life’) are built on the basis of the old abstract formations in *-ī < IDE *-ih2, acc.sg. *-ijan. From the acc.sg. *-ijan, a new nom.sg. was formed in *-ijā, which supplanted the inherited nom.sg. *-ī. This, in turn, led to the merger of three different categories of derivatives: adjectival abstracts in *-ī (=> *-ijā), adjectival abstracts in *-ijā, and deverbal abstracts in *-ijā. In the current Lithuanian language, all these types are continued by adjectival abstracts in -ė and deverbal abstracts in -ė.

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