The Nominative Plural

Hi

As far as I'm aware, the nominative plural of the two nouns медвед and сосед are медведи and соседи. I am wondering why. They are both hard masculine nouns, and neither are affected by any of the spelling rules, so, they should theoretically end in -ы, right?

Are there any other common nouns that do this? Could it be that nouns ending in -ед just end in -и in the nominative plural, for no particular reason? I don't know, just a suggestion. Maybe it's a relic of an old plural form from Old Church Slavonic, or something like that?

Thanks
Jack

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Originally Posted by JackBoni

As far as I'm aware, the nominative plural of the two nouns медведь and сосед are медведи and соседи.

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The word "медвед" does not exist, there is only "медведь".

Oh, well, that would explain why that has its nominative plural the way it does, then. The other word seems irregular to me, though. Are there any other words that end like сосед? If it has its nominative plural in соседи, I assume its plural in the other cases are соседов, соседям, соседи, соседями, соседях, then?

Jack

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Originally Posted by JackBoni

I assume its plural in the other cases are сосед[s:3tz8an92]ов[/s:3tz8an92]ей, соседям, сосед[s:3tz8an92]и[/s:3tz8an92]ей, соседями, соседях, then?

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Almost.

I actually don't know rules, so I don't know why it is so...

" Plural Nouns
...
Remember Special Cases:
сосед - соседи
сын - сыновья
брат - братья
друг - друзья
дочь - дочери
мать - матери
стул - стулья
чудо - чудеса
дерево - деревья"

http://www.foreigndocuments.com/learnru ... nouns.html

Yes, the plural of сосед is соседи. All o-stem nouns in Old Russian ended with -и in the nominative, not -ы. Соседи is such a common word that the -и ending has survived to this day, whereas most other o-stems nouns have gone to -ы.

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Originally Posted by doninphxaz

Yes, the plural of сосед is соседи. All o-stem nouns in Old Russian ended with -и in the nominative, not -ы. Соседи is such a common word that the -и ending has survived to this day, whereas most other o-stems nouns have gone to -ы.

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That's very interesting. Does anyone know of anywhere I can look into Old Church Slavonic, beside on Wikipedia? I find Wikipedia to be a little too dry. I assume this is where the exceptions to these so-called rules come from?

Thanks very much.

Jack

No, it's not OCS, it is Old Russian. OCS is not the same. google for russian language history. I know there are textbooks, but the ones I have in mind are in Russian.

Check here.

Oh, I didn't know they were different; thank you, Chaika. I will check that out a little later - I am leaving to go back to uni now :). Which textbooks did you have in mind? I know you said they were in Russian, but a little immersion never hurt anyone, did it?

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Originally Posted by JackBoni

Oh, I didn't know they were different; thank you, Chaika.

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In a short, sometimes it is stated that OCS is actually protobulgarian. Christianity came to Rus from Byzantium through Bulgaria and the religious language used by all eastern slavics was originally formulated for bulgarians (and by bulgarians).

JackBoni, I've been noticing your quotes do not look as I’m sure you want them to, so try inserting = sign like in between these blue highlighted words: quote=”domminphxaz” and everything will turn back to normal.

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Originally Posted by alexB

JackBoni, I've been noticing your quotes do not look as I’m sure you want them to, so try inserting = sign like in between these blue highlighted words

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Oh, that's what I keep missing out, then. Thanks :lol:

Jack

That's interesting to know, thanks. Now that I have some time, I am going to look into that.

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Originally Posted by it-ogo

In _ short, sometimes it is stated that OCS is actually protobulgarian. Christianity came to Rus from Byzantium through Bulgaria and the religious language used by all Eastern Slavics (better: Slavs) was originally formulated for Bulgarians (and by Bulgarians).

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In English, all nationalities and their corresponding languages start with a capital letter.

Hope that helps.

В.И. Борковский, П.С. Кузнецов, Историческая грамматика русского языка

Спасибо всем за помощь.

Джек