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What do you call this suffix?

From:JR <fuscian@...>
Date:Sunday, April 13, 2008, 11:09
In Khafos, nouns take a certain suffix (-l/-el/-ol/) when preceded by at
least one adjective. Ex:

kevre jetse vato-l
big   green house-?

I don't recall seeing anything quite like this in a natlang. In Tagalog and
Persian, for example, there are "linkers" or "ligatures" or "ezafe", but as
I understand, those are clitics, they come *between* noun *phrases* and
(certain) modifiers, and they're used recursively. Ex:

Persian:
khaane=ye sabz=e   bozorg
house=LK  green=LK big

In Khafos though, the marker is clearly a suffix to the noun (it changes for
vowel harmony, and does not attach to anything else), and does not come
between between the noun and modifier at all. The one modifier that does
follow a noun, a relative clause, does not trigger it (unless it's fronted
to adjectival position! [this structure is marked]).

I've been calling this the "modified suffix" for lack of a better term,
since it is used on nouns that are modified, but that sounds kinda funny. Is
there another word I should be using? And did ANADEW? Or even a conlang?

Josh Roth

Reply

Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>