The Indo-Iranian background of the Ossetic future

Abstract

The Ossetic future is generally believed to originate in compounds with Proto-Iranian *čana(h)- ‘desiring’, but the morphological and phonological details have never been explored. Examination of the Indo-Iranian evidence confirms that since the root *kanH- ‘take pleasure in’ occurs almost exclusively as a stative perfect, the only plausible source is possessive (bahuvrīhi) compounds with the derived noun *čanah- ‘desire’, which were restricted to this usage already in Old Iranian (cf. Avestan šaētō.cinah- ‘whose desire is possessions’). From denominative bases and thematic verbal nouns, *X-čanāh ‘whose desire is XN, desiring XN’ was reinterpreted as deverbal ‘(be) wanting to XV’ > ‘XV-fut’ and generalized to all verbal stems. The phonological evolution to Ossetic -ʒæn- is regular; the distribution of the allomorphs -ʒæn- and -ʒin- in the Digor dialect provides indirect evidence for the placement of stress in Proto-Ossetic, which in turn permits the resolution of an old problem, the double reflex of Proto-Iranian *pati- in compounds.