The Prehistory of the Old Church Slavic Spatial Relator vune

Old Church Slavic vune 'outside (position)' & vun 'outside (destination)' are analyzed as the locative & accusative of an *-o-stem masculine noun that has been grammaticalized as a spatial relator, to which an analogical genitive in -u was formed in the lexicalized prepositional phrase izuvunu 'from outside'. It is proposed that the original noun is cognate with the Hittite neuter noun udne 'field', which displays a close semantic relationship with the Slavic stem as its use in context is limited to spaces defined in terms of other spaces, ie, field as opposed to village; the Slavic forms are regular phonological developments of an -o-stem built to the root *udn- that can be detached from the paradigm of Hittite udne & its oblique stem udn(i)y-. References. J. Hitchcock