Re: -able

On Apr 14, 2008, at 2:47 AM, Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
> T. A. McLeay skrev:
>> MorphemeAddict@WMCONNECT.COM wrote:
>>> In a message dated 4/13/2008 23:47:47 PM Central Daylight Time,
>>> scott.hlad@TELUS.NET writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>> I'm looking for the derivation of the suffix "-able" which we
>>>> have in
>>>> English which appears the same in French and as "-avel" in
>>>> Portugese.
>>>> Any ideas?
>>>> Scotto
>>>>
>>> My first guess is that it's from Latin "-abilis".
>> Which in turn is -a:- + -bilis; the -a:- could also have been -i-
>> (hence
>> "-ible" in "impossible") or not included, hence "soluble" from
>> "solve"
>> (La. solu:-bilis and solvere, noting Classical Latin -v- was /w/,
>> and it
>> is for whatever reason one of my favorite pairs of words in English).
>> Any decent dictionary should tell you this much.
>
> In fact the -a/i/u- was the final vowel of the verb stem.
> OTOH the adjective _able_ comes from _habilis_ 'manageable, handy,
> apt' derived from _habére_ 'to have, to hold'.
Isn't the suffix from the adjective?

The adjective is from hab- "have, hold" and -ilis, which I think is
used sometimes to derive generic adjectives from verbs, but often
specifically with a sense of "ability or tendency to do/undergo
something".

Carsten, you could do something similar in Ayeri -- have an affix
that derives generic adjectives or statives from verbs, but often has
a "can/able" sense to it. Also, some languages grammaticalize a word
for "know [how to]" to mean "be able to" (this can also be used to
mark habituality in some langs I think). English "can" originally
meant "know how".

Reply