-нь

From Proto-Uralic *-n (genitive suffix). Related to Erzya -нь (-ń), Finnish -n.

-нь • (-ń)

1. genitive suffix
   • V. I. Ščankina (2011) Russko-mokšansko-erzjanskij slovarʹ [Russian-Moksha-Erzya Dictionary], Saransk, →ISBN

     дамский — авань

     damskij — ava ń

     ladylike, ladies' [in Russian] — ladylike, ladies'

     женский — авань

     ženskij — ava ń

     female, women's [in Russian] — female, women's

• If the stem ends in a consonant, an epenthetic /ə/ is inserted between the stem and this suffix: -о- if the final consonant of the stem is plain, and -е- if it's palatalized. For example: улав (ulav) — улавонь (ulavoń), марь (maŕ) — марень (mareń). If the stem ends in -й, this letter is replaced with -e-: ляй (läj) — ляень (läjeń). -ь is also replaced.
• If the stem of a polysyllabic noun ends in -и or -ы, -e- (phonetically /jə/) is inserted between the stem and this suffix: маци (maci) — мациень (macijeń), шары (šarï) — шарыень (šarïjeń).
• If the stem of a polysyllabic noun ends in -ю or -у, this suffix can be added directly to the stem, or to an epenthetic suffix -во- (-vo-): куцю (kuću) — куцюнь (kućuń) or куцювонь (kućuvoń), келу (kelu) — келунь (keluń) or келувонь (keluvoń).
• If the stem ends in -а or -е, this suffix causes vowel alternation in shifting vowel-stem nominals such as шуфта (šufta) — шуфтонь (šuftoń), мокша (mokša) — мокшень (mokšeń), сельме (seľme) — сельмонь (seľmoń). In non-shifting vowel-stem nominals, there is no vowel alternation: мода (moda) — модань (modań), веле (vele) — велень (veleń), пря (prä) — прянь (präń).
• Although genitive is an inflected form in its own right, when used as a stand-alone adjective or as an attributive noun, further inflection has been documented, see, for example, мокшень (mokšeń).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

-нь • (-nʹ) n

1. genitive plural of -ння (-nnja)