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-ière
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-ière ( /.'jɛ.rə/) is an unproductive non-native stress-bearing suffix found in nouns. There are two types of formations with the suffix: feminine counterparts of personal nouns in -ier ( /je/), e.g. cabaretière female cabaret artist (cf. cabaretier /ka.ba.rɛ.'tje/ cabaret artist), and denominal names of things such as bonbonnière bonbonnière (cf. bonbon chocolate). All -ière derivations are of common gender and have a plural form in -s; many of them may be loans from French.

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-ière is an unproductive non-native suffix. There are two types of formations with the suffix:

  • feminine counterparts of personal nouns with the non-native suffix -ier ( /je/), e.g. cabaretière female cabaret artist (cf. cabaretier /ka.ba.rɛ.'tje/ cabaret artist) and costumière wardrobe mistress;
  • denominal names of things such as bonbonnière bonbonnière (cf. bonbon chocolate) and plafonnière ceiling light (cf. plafond ceiling).
extra

As De Haas and Trommelen (1993: 214) observe, caissière woman cashier has no female counterpart. They also suggest that première opening night, barrière barrier and carrière career may be analyzed as -ière derivations as well, even though there is no corresponding base noun in Dutch.

-ière ( /'jɛ:.rə/) is stress-bearing with stress on the first syllable, which contains the phoneme /ɛ:/ that is found in loan words only. The suffix is cohering: syllabification does respect the morphological structure ( cabaretière /ka.ba.rɛ.'tjɛ:.rə/ female cabaret artist).

All -ière derivations are of common gender, selecting the definite singular article de, and have a plural form in -s (cabaretières female cabaret artists, plafonnières ceiling lights); many may be loans from French.

References
  • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
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