/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    1.1.2.1 Affixoids
    quickinfo

    Affixoids are lexemes that form part of a compound and have a meaning bound to this use. For example, the element -riek (‘-rich’) in gloorriek (‘glorious’) does not (anymore) refer to wealth and riches but it has instead evolved into a kind of suffix meaning ‘full of’. Affixoids are free morphemes (words) on their way to a status of bound morphemes (affixes). Therefore, it is hard to decide what constitutes an affixoid synchronically and what doesn’t. Skeeldenfräi ‘free from debts’ contains a suffixoid but -loos in ooldenloos ‘parentless’ is not anymore a suffixoid but rather a regular suffix.

    Affixoids can either be prefixed (prefixoids) or suffixed (suffixoids) and either adjectival or nominal

    Adjectival prefixoids:

    1
    holichboaken (‘half-baked’), oainboaken, säärm-boaken (‘self-baked’), skiendood (‘apparently dead’)

    Nominal prefixoids:

    2
    Boaskäärdel (‘gorgeous guy’), Ooldbäbe (‘grandfather’), Skietding (‘lousy thing’)

    Adjectival suffixoids:

    3
    skeeldenfräi (‘free fom debts’), babemaal (‘crazy about one’s father’), roumful, roumriek (‘glorious’), mundpaas (‘bite-sized’), tjoonfooldich (‘tenfold’)

    Nominal suffixoids are often pejoratives. In other cases, they refer to occupations.

    4
    die Ballermoarze (‘chattering fool’, lit. ‘chatter-ass’), die Doamelbukse (‘chatterbox’, lit. ‘chatter-trousers’), die Doofkop (‘fool’), die Lüüchhinnerk (‘lyer’, lit. ‘lie-Henry’), die Fäärmon (‘ferryman’), die Flitterkroam (‘rubbish’), die/ju Rappeltaaske (‘female chatterbox’, lit. ‘chatter-handbag’), dät Waskwieuw (‘laundress’)

    When the affixoids -mon and -wieuw denote occupations, the traditional plural forms are -ljude and -wieuwe (not -monljude and -wieuwljude): die Hondelsmon, do Hondelsljude ‘merchant(s)’, juWaskwieuw, do Waskwieuwe ‘laundress(es)’. Exceptions to this rule have been created by sociolinguistic factors, however. A female merchant is now called a Hondelswieuw, plural Hondelswieuwljude. Apparently, the plural form Wieuwe has obtained a pejorative ring, e.g. in words like do Rabbelwieuwe ‘gossip mongers’ or do Wikkerswieuwe ‘fortune tellers’.

    Pejoratives often arise from exocentric compounds (cf. [1.1.2.7]). A Tjukkop is somebody with a thick head, but a Doofkop ‘silly fool’ is just a silly person. In this case, the element -kop has become an affixoid. Many proper names are used as pejorative affixoids (e.g. Nusselfrits, Bölkhäärm, Ballerjaan, Lachlieze, Jibbeltriene). Pieces of clothing are popular too (e.g. Doamelbukse).

    The words (die) Ballermoarze ‘chattering fool’ and (die) Boangebukse ‘coward’ are masculine and usually refer to men, although (ju) Moarze ‘ass’ and (ju) Bukse ‘trousers’ are feminine. Here, the elements -moarze and -bukse have become completely detached from the original lexemes and evolved into affixoids.

    A large subset of adjectival prefixoids has an elative function (cf. 1.1.2.6., elative compounds).

    5
    doodfluch (‘very beautiful’), skietewäit (‘soaking wet’)

    Adjectival suffixoids usually take the first element as complements, eg.:

    6
    skeeldenfräi (‘free fom debts’), babemaal (‘crazy about one’s father’), doodriep (‘as good as dead’, lit. ‘ripe for death’), gloorriek (‘glorious’), luftticht (‘airtight’), tonkjenswäid (‘thankworthy’)

    Some adjectives are ambiguous between a regular compound meaning (see 1.1.1.2) as well as an ‘affixoid’ meaning. Some examples are bloudäärm (‘anaemic’; ‘very poor’; lit. ‘blood-poor’) and doodriep (‘as good as dead’; ‘dead ripe [grain]’).

    The pejorative adjectival prefixoid skiete- in skietewäit is an allomorph of the nominal prefixoid skiet- in Skietding, see 1.1.2.8 (linking elements).

    Nominal suffixoids have a pejorative meaning in die/ju Rappeltaaske (‘female chatterbox’), die Doamelbukse (‘chatterbox’), die Lüüchhinnerk (‘liar’), etcetera. Pejoratives ending in (for instance) -taaske (‘handbag’) mostly refer to women, whereas those ending in (for instance) -bukse (‘trousers’) usually refer to men, hence: die (m.) Doamelbukse, although the word Bukse in itself is feminine: ju Bukse. Proper names are productive suffixoids as well: e.g. Lüüchhinnerk (lit. ‘lying-Henry’) and Laachlieze (lit. ‘laughing-Liza’).

    Nominal suffixoids probably also occur in, e.g.: die Hondelsmon (pl. do Hondelsljude; ‘salesman’), dät Waskwieuw (pl. do Waskwieuwe, ‘washerwoman’), ju Koopmonske (pl. do Koopmonsken, ‘female merchand’). The elements Mon, Wieuw and Mo(a)nske do not simply refer to men and women. Instead, they denote specific occupations. The plural forms deviate from the regular plurals Monljude (to Mon) and Wieuwljude (to Wieuw and Moanske).

    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra
      Category: Saterfrisian Morphology
      Version: 1.0, December 2023
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra, Bouke Slofstra December 2023
      printreport errorcite
      Jump to:
      X