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Quenarth
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Post Agentive suffixes - Question sparked from the Sindarin forum...
on: July 12, 2005 02:00
...plust, it's something I've worked on and been trying to find an answer to. SwissBoy posted on the Sindarin forum if there was a suffix or something equivalent to the English 'er.' As in writER, workER, singER, dancER, etc. Is there a Quenya suffix for this? I've been told that it's -o but I'm not sure about my scource. Besides, that simply looks like genetive case to me.

Help appreciated.

(EDIT: Modified the subject line a little to make the thread easier to find in the future. / Malinornë)

[Edited on 13/7/2005 by Malinornë]
Falmariel
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Post RE: Agentive suffixes - Question sparked from the Sindarin forum...
on: July 12, 2005 02:38
I've never seen the "-o", but my knowledge is predominately from Ardalambion.

I have seen the formula "A ná calima lá B", meaning "A is bright beyond B" or "A is brighter than B."

I'm not sure if that's out of date now, though...

[edited] Gosh, I must be blind. Could someone just delete this post?


[Edited on 19/7/2005 by Falmariel]
dirk_math
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Post RE: Agentive suffixes - Question sparked from the Sindarin forum...
on: July 12, 2005 10:23
To denote someone who performs an action we have the endings: -ro/-rë and -indo/-indë.
The endings on -o are masculine, and those on -ë are feminine.

The first two endings are applied to a-verbs:
e.g. masta- 'to bake'
mastaro = baker (m.)
mastarë = baker (f.)

and the other two to primitive verbs:
e.g. car- 'to make, to build'
carindo = maker, builder (m.)
carindë = maker, builder (f.)

And the genitive cases for the masculine forms are indeed identical to their nominatives, so mastaro could also mean 'of the baker'.
But the female forms add -o: mastarëo, carindëo

Sometimes the ending -ro is replaced by the short form -r, e.g. istar 'wizard' from ista- 'to know'.

To make the plurals of the masculine form on -ro I would personally always prefer this shortened form:
e.g. mastari instead of mastaror
and in the genitive: mastarion instead of mastaroron
(this would of course mean that there is no difference between the male and female forms in the plural, but this is hardly ever a problem)
Yassë engë lómë, anarties calali.
Tyrhael
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Post RE: Agentive suffixes - Question sparked from the Sindarin forum...
on: July 13, 2005 02:50
I find this page on Quenya affixes to be very useful:
http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/affix~1.htm
Quenarth
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Post RE: Agentive suffixes - Question sparked from the Sindarin forum...
on: July 14, 2005 04:40
Aha! I was just coming her to post that I had noticed the 'ro' and there it is!! Thanks so much for answering! Very, very, helpful.
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