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    -e
    quickinfo

    The suffix -e derives female nouns from nouns that mostly refer to a specific profession or ideology. The suffix is unproductive. It mainly occurs after words of non-germanic origin. An example is presidint president > presidinte female president. If bases end in -teur, this turns to -trise after suffixation, for example in kondukteur conductor > konduktrise female conductor. Something comparable applies to the ending -eur, which changes to -euze, as in sjofeur driver > sjofeuze female driver. The suffix selects -s as its plural ending.

    Other suffixes that form female nouns are -esse, -inne, -ske and -ster. Note also the suffix -e which derives female inhabitant names; however, on the basis of an adjective. For the latter suffix, see the section reference to female inhabitant names in the topic on -e with adjective as base.

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    [+]General properties

    The unproductive suffix -e, pronounced as schwa ( [ə]), attaches to nouns that indicate male (or sex-neutral) persons practising a certain profession, holding an office, having a certain ideology, and the like. The suffix creates a noun that refers to the female practitioner. Some examples are given below:

    Table 1
    Base form Derivation
    presidint president presidinte chairwoman
    studint student studinte female student
    pianist piano-player pianiste female piano-player
    kommunist communist kommuniste female communist
    filosoof philosopher filosofe female philosopher
    spion spy spionne female spy
    learling pupil learlinge female pupil
    The derivations have common gender, which implies that they select de the as the definite article.

    [+]The endings -trise and -euze

    If the base form ends in, originally French, -teur, then this ending is replaced with -trise (i.e. -tris- + -e). Examples are listed below. In the last two examples, the originally Latin ending -tor is also replaced by -trise.

    Table 2
    Base form Derivation
    kondukteur conductor konduktrise female conductor
    direkteur manager direktrise manageress
    akteur actor aktrise actress
    ynspekteur inspector ynspektrise female inspector
    rapporteur reporter rapportrise female reporter
    koördinator co-ordinator koördinatrise female co-ordinator
    presintator host presentatrise hostess
    If the base form ends in -eur (hence: different from -teur!), this ending is replaced by -euze (i.e. -euz- + -e). Examples are listed below:
    Table 3
    Base form Derivation
    sjofeur driver sjofeuze female driver
    masseur masseur masseuze masseuse
    kûpeur cutter kûpeuze female cutter

    [+]Stratum

    As the examples indicate, the suffix is mostly combined with a non-germanic base. This, however, is not necessarily so, for instance in learlinge female pupil.

    [+]Morphological potential

    The derivations all have their plural in -s. This must be selected by the suffix, as monomorphematic nouns ending in a schwa normally take -en as their plural suffix (see regular plural formation and particularly the plural of complex words for plural formation). Diminuation is odd, probably since for diminutive formation one is inclined to truncate the final schwa, which is not possible here since it bears the female semantics. On the other hand, a putative ending -eke sounds strange.

    extra
    Literature

    Tamminga (1973:54-57) writes about the suffixes denoting female persons. This suffix is also mentioned in Hoekstra (1998:93-94). For the plural of words ending in a schwa, see Hoekstra (2011).

    References
    • Hoekstra, Jarich1998Fryske wurdfoarmingLjouwertFryske Akademy
    • Hoekstra, Jarich2011Meervoudsvorming in het Westerlauwers Fries en het Nederlands (en patroniemvorming in het Noord-Fries)Taal en Tongval63281-301
    • Tamminga, Douwe Annes1973Op 'e taelhelling. Losse trochsneden fan Frysk taellibben. IIA.J. Osinga
    About this article
    Author(s): Siebren Dyk, Joke Weening
    Category: Frisian Morphology
    Keywords: derivationsuffixfemalestratum
    Version: ,
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