Suffixation

§ 260. Suffixation was by far the most productive means of word derivation in OE. Suffixes not only modified the lexical meaning of the word but could refer it to another part of speech. Suffixes were mostly applied in forming nouns and adjectives, seldom — in forming verbs.

Etymologically OE suffixes can be traced to several sources: old stem-suffixes, which had lost their productivity, but could still be distingyished in some words as dead or non-productive suffixes; derivational suffixes proper inherited from PIE and PG; new suffixes which developed from root-morphemes in Late PG and OE in the course of morphological simplification of the word.

§ 261. The old stem-suffixes cannot be regarded as means of derivation in OE. They must have been productive at earlier stages of history, probably in PG, and had left their traces in the morphological classes of nouns, verbs and adjectives. Their application in word derivation can be best shown in reconstructed, pre-written forms of weak verbs. Weak verbs of Class I were originally derived from nominal or verbal roots with the help of the stem-forming suffix -i/l-, e.g. *tæl-i-an, *mōt-i-an, OE tellan, mētan — from the roots of OE talu, ʒe-mot[25]; verbs of Class II were formed with the help of the most productive stem-suffix -ō-, or -ōj-, e.g.: *hop-ō-jan, *luf-ō-jan, OE hopian, lufian from corresponding nouns hapa, lufu (NE tell, meet, hope, love).

The productivity of -ōj-in verb derivation is confirmed by the fact that Class II was the most numerous of all classes; verbs of this class continued to be formed in Early OE (see § 207).

Most stem-suffixes had been lost by the age of writing; the surviving suffixes were dead or non-productive, e.g. -t in OE meaht (NE might), see also § 263, 264.

§ 262. Suffixes are usually classified according to the part of speech which they can form. In OE there were two large groups of suffixes: suffixes of nouns and suffixes of adjectives. Noun suffixes are divided into suffixes of "agent nouns" ("nomina agentis") and those of abstract nouns.

§ 263. Among the suffixes of "agent nouns" there were some dead, unproductive suffixes: -a, as in the Masc. a-stem hunta (NE hunter), -end, originally the suffix of the Present Participle, e.g. OE frēond, fiend, hǣlend (NE friend, fiend, 'saviour'). -end in word-building was later replaced by -ere, a suffix of IE descent, whose productivity grew after the adoption of numerous Latin words with the same suffix, e.g. scōlere, sutere (NE scholar, 'shoemaker')[26]. OE agent nouns in -ere were derived from nouns and verbs: bōcere, fiscere, leornere, bæcere, etc. (NE 'scribe', fisher, learner, baker).

The nouns in -ere were Masc.; the corresponding suffix of Fem. nouns -estre was less common: bæcestre, spinnestre ('female baker', 'female spinner'). The suffix -inʒ was used to build patronymics and to show the descent of a person, e.g.: Æpelwulfinʒ 'son of Æpelwulf, Centinʒ 'a man coming from Kent', cyninʒ 'head of clan or tribe" — OE cynn 'clan'.

§ 264. Among suffixes of abstract nouns there were some survivals of old stem-suffixes and numerous later formations: the stem-suffix -t in meaht, siht or sihp (NE might, sight)was dead; -p reinforced by the addition of a vowel, was more alive: alongside -pu the element -p- appears in -op, -ap,-up, e.g. piefp (NE theft), huntop, fiscap, ʒeoʒup ('hunting', 'fishing', 'youth'). Some nouns in -pu had a mutated root-vowel, probably a trace of the earlier suffix -in, which caused the palatal mutation and was displaced by -p; cf., e.g. brād adj — brǣdu, brǣdpu (NE broad, breadth); lanʒ — lenʒpu (NE long — length); stronʒ — strenʒpu (NE strong, strength). Another productive suffix which formed abstract nouns from adjective stems was -nes/-nis: beorhtnes (NE brightness), blindnis (NE blindness), unrihtwisnes 'injustice', druncennis (from Part. II druncen).

Another productive suffix, -ung/-ing, was used to build abstract nouns from verbs (especially weak verbs), e.g. bodian — bodung ('preach, preaching'), earnian — earnung (NE earn, earning), witnian — wilnung ('desire' v, n).

§ 265. A most important feature of OE suffixation is the growth of new suffixes from root-morphemes. The second components of compound words turned into suffixes and the words were accordingly transformed from compound to derived. To this group belong OE -dōm, -had, -lāc, -scipe, -rǣden. As compared with the same morphemes used as roots, the suffixes had a different — usually a more general — meaning. Thus, OE dōm as a noun meant 'judgement, choice', 'honour', while as a second affixal component it lost this lexical meaning to a varying extent, e.g.: frēodōm 'free choice', 'freedom' (NE freedom), wisdōm 'wise judgement' (NE wisdom), cristendōm 'Christianity', lǣcedōm 'medicine'. Likewise OE hād 'title' yielded words like cildhād (NE childhood); the noun lāc 'gift' became a suffix in OE wedlāc (NE 'wedlock').

As long as the morpheme was used as the root of an independent word, the ties between the root and the new affix were still felt, and the transition into a suffix was not complete as was the case with -dōm, -had and -lāc. If the word went out of use, the new affix was no longer associated with a root-morpheme and became an ordinary suffix. Thus -scipe occurred only as a component part of abstract nouns — frēond-scipe (NE friendship), ʒebēorscipe 'feast', hǣpenscipe 'heathenism'. The growth of new suffixes from root-morphemes made up for the decline of the old system of stem-suffixes.

§ 266. In the derivation of adjectives we find suffixes proper such as -iʒ, -isc, -ede, -sum, -en (from the earlier -in)and a group of morphemes of intermediate nature — between root and affix — like the noun suffixes described above. The suffixes with the element -i-, that is -isc, -iʒ and -en (-in)were often, though not always, accompanied by mutation. Adjectives were usually derived from nouns, rarely from verb stems or other adjectives. The most productive suffixes were -iʒ, and -isc: mōdiʒ 'proud' (from mōd, NE mood), hāliʒ (NE holy), bysiʒ (NE busy); mennisc 'human' (from man with the root-vowet [a]). Enʒlisc, Denisc (NE English, Danish). Examples with other suffixes are: lanʒsum 'lasting' (from lans, NE long); hōcede 'curved, hooked' (from hōc, NE hook)(for the use of -ede with compound adjectives see § 272).

§ 267. The productive adjective suffix -tic originated from the noun tic 'body', but had evidently lost all semantic ties with the latter. It could derive adjectives from nouns and other adjectives: sceandlic 'disgraceful' (from sceand 'disgrace'), woruldlic 'worldly' (from woruld, NE world), scearplic 'sharp' (from the adjective scearp), dēadlic (NE deadly), frēondlic (NE friendly), etc.

By adding another suffix -e the adjective was turned into an adverb: frēondlic — frēotidlice 'friendly, in a friendly manner', wundorlic 'wonderful' — wundorlice 'wondrously'; also: heard adj — hearde adv (NE hard), lanʒ adj — lanʒe adv (NE long). The use of -e after -lic was very common; thus -lice became a frequent component of adverbs and began to be applied as a suffix of adverbs, even if they were not derived from adjectives in -lic, e.g.: rot 'glad' adj — rotlice adv 'cheerfully', innweard 'deep' adj — innweardlice adv 'deeply' (NE inward)1

The ties of the other new adjective suffixes with corresponding roots are more transparent: OE full was an adjective which yielded derived adjectives (or compounds) being attached to other stems, mostly those of abstract nouns: weorðfull 'illustrious' (lit. "full of worth"), carfull (NE careful), synnfutl (NE sinful). The adjective leas 'deprived, bereft of employed as a suffix retained its meaning: sāwollēas 'lifeless, deprived of soul', hlāfordlēas 'without a lord', slǣplēas (NE sleepless).

§ 268. Verb suffixes were few and non-productive. They can be illustrated by -s in clǣnsian, a verb derived from the adjective clǣne (NE clean)and -lǣc in nēalǣcan 'come near, approach' and ǣfenlǣcan, an impersonal verb meaning 'the approach of evening' (R вечереть).

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