Like in many languages, my Neo-Norse language has words that are composed of a stem + suffix. Each stem is unique and is associated with a different meaning. The suffix denotes the type of word.
Let me give an example. In English, '-ious' is a suffix indicating that the word is an adjective. 'Infectious' = 'infect' + 'ious'. '-ion' denotes a noun. 'Infect' + 'ion' = 'Infection'. Using suffixes makes a language easy to learn, because you need only learn the stem, and can derive other words from it without having encountered those words before. Unfortunately, in current languages like English, one kind of word can be indicated by many different suffixes. And one suffix might not be very specific. In English, adjectives can also be made by adding '-ic', or '-able', or '-ate', or '-ful'. Both nouns and verbs often do not have suffixes. So 'fire!' might be an order to shoot someone, or it might be an exclamation informing the people that the town is burning down.
I want a language that does not contain superfluous suffixes, but also in which each suffix has a specific purpose not shared by other suffixes.
I want a language that does not contain superfluous suffixes, but also in which each suffix has a specific purpose not shared by other suffixes.
By looking (critically) at common Old Norse and Icelandic words, I've decided on the following suffixes:
| Type | Suffix | Example1 | Translation1 | Example2 | Translation2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stem | stúð | support | þók | fog | |
| Abstract | -i | stúði | supportiveness | þóki | fogginess |
| Agent/ Subject | -ar | stúðar | supporter | þókar | |
| Product/ Object | -ör | stúðör | supportee | þókör | |
| Adjective | -in | stúðin | supportive | þókin | foggy |
| Verb Active | -a | stúða | to support | þóka | |
| Verb Passive | -ast | stúðast | to be supported | þókast | |
| Participle Active | -andi | stúðandi | supporting | þókandi | |
| Participle Passive | -aðör | stúðaðör | supported | þókaðör | |
| Plural | -as | stúðaras | supporters | þókaras |
Note that I use transcription symbols (rather than runes) so that you understand it without needing to learn a new alphabet. The stem 'stúð' is based on the Old Norse word 'styðja', with '-ja' being a (meaningless) suffix. The stem 'þók' is based on the Old Norse word 'þoka'. You can see that while you can make all kinds of different words from a stem by adding suffixes, not all have meaning. Agent/subject and product/object are usually only present when there is an action/verb associated with the stem.
The stem is a special category. It is used for common objects like 'money', 'river', 'hole', 'sun', 'tool', etc. It is also used for special words like: 'as', 'if', 'then', 'unless', etc. I deliberately made this category suffix-less because 1) otherwise common words will all have the same ending, making the language more boring and 2) so that the most frequently used words are also the shortest, making communicating with this language faster.
You will perhaps notice that only 2 verb suffixes exist (active and passive). This is very different in a number of other languages, where each person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) has a different suffix, and also singular and plural are different. In English this difference has almost disappeared, there are only 2 forms left (stem and stem + s). There is a thing in English called tence: verbs can be set in the past (-ed) or in the non-past. In my language, all timing is indicated by special words, more on that in later posts. Like in English, noun function is not indicated by the case but by the position in the sentence. The cat ate the fish. The fish ate the cat.
This is still pretty easy isn't it?
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