Re: -able

tks

-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On
Behalf Of Benct Philip Jonsson
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 12:48 AM
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Subject: Re: -able

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 _hab