Hi, can someone tell my why the dative of the masculine noun путь is пути and not путю?
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Hi, can someone tell my why the dative of the masculine noun путь is пути and not путю?
Hi,
it's a good question! "Путь" is a very special word. There is a simple explanation for that:
historically, "путь" used to be a feminine noun in Russian (old use: путь - она; длинная путь "a long way"). Yes, now it sounds weird for a modern Russian speaker.
But then, due to some reason, this noun changed its gender to masculine (modern use: путь - он; длинный путь "a long way"). But its declension forms still remind those of the feminine nouns ending in a soft sign.
Just compare three examples:
masculine
Nom. Sg. руль (steering-wheel)
Gen. Sg. руля
Dat. Sg. рулю
Acc. Sg. руль
Instr. Sg. рулём
Prep. Sg. (о) руле
Nom. Sg. рули
Gen. Sg. рулей
Dat. Sg. рулям
Acc. Sg. рули
Instr. Sg. рулями
Prep. Sg. (о) рулях
feminine
Nom. Sg. тень (shadow, shade)
Gen. Sg. тени
Dat. Sg. тени
Acc. Sg. тень
Instr. Sg. тенью
Prep. Sg. (о) тени
Nom. Sg. тени
Gen. Sg. теней
Dat. Sg. теням
Acc. Sg. тени
Instr. Sg. тенями
Prep. Sg. (о) тенях
путь (now masculine)
Nom. Sg. путь (way)
Gen. Sg. пути
Dat. Sg. пути
Acc. Sg. путь
Instr. Sg. путём
Prep. Sg. (о) пути
Nom. Sg. пути
Gen. Sg. путей
Dat. Sg. путям
Acc. Sg. пути
Instr. Sg. путями
Prep. Sg. (о) путях
It is the only noun which behaves this way. If you compare, you will easily find:
- in plural there is no difference in declension between masculine and feminine, so "путь" fits the pattern perfectly, and it is easy;
- in singular, "путь" behaves as a masculine noun in Instrumental;
- in singular, "путь" behaves as a feminine noun (but it is still masculine!) in other oblique cases (oblique cases are all cases except nominative and accusative).
Actually, this is not quite correct.
The word ‘путь’ historically was masculine, but masculine nouns ending with ‘ь’ used to have two different declension paradigms. Later, the words of the second paradigm moved to feminine (since that second paradigm was pretty alike with the one for feminine nouns), but the word ‘путь’ didn't, being the only word using that paradigm now. In some dialects, however, it did.
This topic was covered in a great public lecture «Механизмы языковых изменений» (text and video) by a Russian linguist Svetlana Burlak:
Quote:
Originally Posted by http://polit.ru/article/2013/06/30/burlak
Но раньше было мужского. См. Достаточно редкое слово, кстати.
Thanks for the answers! However it came about I am just glad it is an exception and not another rule I need to remember )
philosopher:
- There are exceptions to every rule.
logician:
- This statement pretends to be a rule itself. Thus, there are exceptions to it. If there are exceptions to it, it means there are some rules without any exceptions. Which contradicts to the original statement :)