Re: What do you call this suffix?

on 4/13/08 5:48 PM, caeruleancentaur at caeruleancentaur@YAHOO.COM wrote:

>> JR <fuscian@...> wrote:
>
>> 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'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?
>
> What is the purpose of the suffix?  I should think we'd need to know
> that before we named it.
>
> Definite article (as in Rumanian)?
> Relic of a former usage?
>
> Charlie
The suffix does not signify or result from anything other than the presence
of an adjective. It's a redundant, predictable, and basically useless
historical relic (much like the Persian linker, AFAICT, which in its shorter
-e form is not even indicated in writing, but can still be inserted
correctly by the reader). There is one incidental, indirect, occasional, and
limited benefit, which is that it will sometimes make clear a boundary
between juxtaposed NPs which would have been invisible otherwise. But I
certainly wouldn't call that the function or purpose of the suffix, and I
don't think it's really relevant here.

Josh Roth