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-sk

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Adjectives derived from geographical names normally have the same form as the name of the inhabitant of that place. That means that most adjectival derivations from geographical names end in -er. However, if the geographical name which is referred to is not situated in the province of Fryslân Friesland, the adjectival derivation of the geographical name often gets the suffix -sk or its variant -ysk. This contrast is shown in the example below, where (a) is a geographical name in the province of Fryslân Friesland, and (b) and (c) are not:

De Skylger ljochttoer

The lighthouse of Skylge

De Yslânske bank

The Icelandic bank

De Russyske kampioen

The Russian champion

It should be noted that the suffix -sk also derives adjectives from nouns, other adjectives and verbs. This is dealt with separately in a topic on -sk with a noun as base.

General properties
Truncation
The suffix -sk as a last resort
Morphological potential

[+]General properties

If the geographical name which is referred to is not situated in the province of Fryslân Friesland, the name of the inhabitant and the derived adjective usually get the suffix -er. However, if the geographical name is not located in the province, the adjectival derivation of the geographical name then usually takes the suffix -sk or -ysk. Thus in these cases, the name of the inhabitant and the adjectival derivation differ from each other. Examples for -sk are given in the table below:

Table 1

Geographical name	Inhabitant	Adjectival derivation
Stienwyk	Stienwiker inhabitant of Stienwyk	Stienwyksk related to Stienwyk
Grinslân	Grinslanner inhabitant of Grinslân	Grinslânsk related to the province of Grins
Eastenryk Austria	Eastenriker inhabitant of Austria	Eastenryksk Austrian
Lúksemboarch Luxembourg	Lúksemboarger inhabitant of Luxembourg	Lúksemboarchsk related to Luxembourg
Brabân	Brabander inhabitant of Brabân	Brabânsk related to the province of Brabân
Amsterdam	Amsterdammer inhabitant of Amsterdam	Amsterdamsk related to the city of Amsterdam

If the name of the inhabitant does not end in -er, then the geographical adjective is often formed on the base of the inhabitant name and not on the geographical name. This is shown in the table below:

Table 2

Geographical name	Inhabitant	Adjectival derivation
Noarwegen Norway	Noar Norwegian	Noarsk Norwegian (not *Noarwegensk)
Grikelân Greece	Gryk Greek	Gryksk Greek (not *Grikelânsk)
Portugal Portugal	Portugees Portuguese	Portugeesk Portuguese (not *Portugalsk)
Bulgarije Bulgaria	Bulgaar Bulgarian	Bulgaarsk Bulgarian (not *Bulgarijsk)
Turkije Turkey	Turk Turk	Turksk Turkish (not *Turkijsk)
Amearika America	Amerikaan American	Amerikaansk American (not *Amerikaask

If the name of the inhabitant ends in -s, or -aat, -yt, -oat, the geographical adjective gets the variant -ysk: Rus Russian > Russysk Russian, Kroaat Croat > Kroatysk Croation, Semyt Semite > Semitysk Semitic, Goat Goth > Goatysk Gothic.

extra

Frysk Frisian as an exception

An exception to the rule that adjectives derived from geographical names within the province of Fryslân end in the sequence -er is the name of the province itself. That is, the adjective gets the suffix -sk, i.e. in Frysk Frisian.

[+]Truncation

When the geographical name ends in -en, this ending undergoes truncation before -sk: Wenen Vienna > Weensk typical for Vienna, Beieren Bavaria > Beiersk typical for Bavaria, Litouwen Lithuania > Litousk related to Lithuania.

In case the geographical name ends in -ië, the final -e is truncated: Normandië Normandy > Normandysk Norman, Australië Australia > Australysk Australian, Libië Libya > Libysk related to Libya.

[+]The suffix -sk as a last resort

As can be seen in the topic about -er, -er derivations cannot be inflected, they cannot get the prefix ûn- and cannot be used predicatively. If one nevertheless wants to use such geographical adjectives predicatively or with the prefix ûn-, the suffix -sk has to be added:

In ûn-Ljouwerterske hâlding

An attitude that's not typical for an inhabitant of Ljouwert

Dat is typysk Ljouwertersk

That is typical for an inhabitant of Ljouwert

In this way, geographical adjectives from names within the province can end in -sk, notwithstanding the unmarked rule which requires -er.

[+]Morphological potential

The geographical adjectives ending in -sk or -ysk form the basis of designations of languages. This is done by way of conversion. So, from the adjective Sweedsk Swedish one can form the name of the language Sweedsk, and the language Russysk Russian is converted from the adjective Russysk. Such nouns have neuter gender, hence it Sweedsk, with the definite article it. This pattern also applies to geographical adjectives ending in -er that take -sk as a last resort, as described in the section above. The dialect of the town of Ljouwert, for example, is called Ljouwertersk.

extra

Literature

This topic is based on Hoekstra (1998:138-139).

References

Hoekstra, Jarich1998Fryske wurdfoarmingLjouwertFryske Akademy

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About this article

Author(s): Siebren Dyk, Joke Weening

Category: Frisian Morphology

Keywords: adjectivalgeographicalderivationsuffixtruncation

Version: 1.0, April 2016

Version history:

version	editor(s)	date	remarks
1.0	Siebren Dyk, Joke Weening	April 2016

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