Proto-Turkic/Suffixes used to create new words with new meanings

Welcome to seventh lesson of Proto-Turkic.

Languages belonging to the Altaic group are agglutinative languages. New words are always born from roots.

Suffixes that make nouns (or adjectives, adverbs) from a verb
In order to define the suffixes that make nouns from the verb, we first need a root verb. Nouns (or adjectives, adverbs) formed by this method are in close meaning with the root verb.

*-Xk
Here are some examples:

*uŕa- (“to be taller, to be longer”) → *uŕak (“far; long (time), late”)

*kīči- (“to tickle”) → *kīčik (“itching, tickling”)

*tīre- (“to support”) → *tīrek (“support”)

*sogï- (“to get cold”) → *sogïk (“cold”)

*-Xn
Here are some examples:

*kẹl- (“to come”) → *kẹlin (“bride”)

*yarï- (“to shine”) → *yarïn (“morning, tomorrow”)

*oy- (“to jump”) → *oyun (“game”)

*tüt- (“to smoke, reek”) → *tütün (“tobacco, smoke”)

*-gU
*bur- (“to bend”) → *burgu (“trumpet, horn; pipe (of a plant)”)

See dead verbs for more.

*-Xĺ
*yum- → *yumuĺ (“work”) (from a dead verb, perhaps from *yum- (“to round”))

The same suffix also has a different function. But that is the subject of Suffixes that make verbs from a verb.

*-Ug
*kam- (“to gather”) → *kamug (“all, together”)

*agrï- (“to ache, hurt”) → *agrïg (“ache, pain”)

*köpür- (“dead verb”) → *köpürüg (“bridge”)

*-gAk
*bat- (“to sink; to fit into, get into”) → *batgak (“swamp, marsh”)

See dead verbs for more.

Suffixes that make nouns (or adjectives, adverbs) from a noun
Some suffixes of this type do not change the meaning, and most suffixes have meanings very close to the root.

*-Ig
Here are some examples:

*el (“hand”) → *elig (“hand”)

*siar(ï) (“yellow, white”) → *siarïg (“yellow, white”)

*-lXg
It corresponds to the -ful suffix in English.

Here are some examples:

*kǖč (“power”) → *kǖčlüg (“powerful”)

*köpür (“bridge”) → *köpürlüg (“bridge-ful, with bridges”)

*us (“mind”) → *uslug (“well-behaved, mind-ful”)

*el (“hand”) → *ellig (“fifty; with hand”)

You can give the same meaning by adding this suffix to any word you want. But of course you can't get a new number by adding it to numbers. :) This is only for the number fifty.

*-sXŕ
It corresponds to the -less suffix in English.

*kǖč (“power”) → *kǖčsüŕ (“powerless”)

*köpürüg (“bridge”) → *köpürügsüŕ (“bridgeless, without bridges”)

*us (“mind”) → *ussuŕ (“mindless, without mind”)

You can give the same meaning by adding this suffix to any word you want.

*-lXk
It corresponds to the -ness suffix in English.

*kǖčlüg (“powerful”) → *kǖčlüglük (“powerfulness”)

*bẹ (“I, me”) → *benlik (“me-ness, my pair of shoes”)

*kara (“black, dark”) → *kara(n)lïk (“darkness”)

*it (“dog”) → *itlik (“dogness, dog's pair of shoes”)

*yubka (“thin, slender, unsubstantial”) → *yubkalïk (“thin-ness, slender-ness”)

You can give the same meaning by adding this suffix to any word you want.

*-čI
This suffix is identical to the English suffix -er.


 * *sǖt (“milk”) → *sǖtči (“milkman”)


 * *īĺč (“work”) → *īĺčči (“worker”)
 * *oyun (“game”) → *oyunčï (“gamer”)


 * *sub (“water”) → *subčï (“water seller”)

*-XnčI
Creates ordinal numbers from cardinal numbers.

The structure of this suffix may have been provided by the fact that the word takes the previous *-čI suffix after taking the instrumental.

*bīr (“one”) → *bīrinči (“first”)

*üč (“three”) → *üčünči (“third”)

*altï (“six”) → *altïnčï (“sixth”)

It just makes the noun an adjective. For example, it cannot be used as "**bīrinči kẹltim (I came first)". It should be used as follows: "*bīrinči bōlsa kẹltim (I came as being first)". Or there is the word *il(i)k, which you can use in the same sense, although it does not mean exactly the same on its own. (e.g: *il(i)k keltim, I came before).

Suffixes that make verbs from a verb
Such suffixes can answer questions such as who is performing the action, whether it is one person or more than one person, without a second additional sentence. They don't change the meaning of the verb, they just add.

Reciprocal (*-Xĺč-)
This appendix indicates that the action was performed by more than one person. The same sentence can be made without this suffix, but this suffix saves extra words. You can get this meaning by adding this suffix to any verb you want.

It is also sometimes used to mean doing something by oneself in some Turkic languages such as Turkish.

*kör- (“to see”) → *körüĺč- (“to see each other; to meet”)

*bạk- (“to look”) → *bạkïĺč- (“to look each other”)

*ur- (“to beat, hit”) → *uruĺč- (“to beat each other; to fight”)

*seb- (“to love”) → *sebiĺč- (“to love each other”)

Passiveness and Activeness (*-Xn-, *-n-, *-Xl-, -l-)

 * 1) Indicates that a job is done by itself
 * 2) Creates the passive state

First of all, this can be a bit difficult for non-native speakers to understand. Because the use of these suffixes varies according to the consonant in the last letter.

If the consonant in the last letter is t or n, it always takes the suffix *-Xl. If the consonant in the last letter is l, it always takes the suffix *-Xn. However, other consonants may vary from Turkic languages to Turkic languages and are irregular in some Turkic languages. It has been observed that in Turkish, vowel endings always have -n suffix and no -l suffix. On the contrary, the Kazakh word bastaw takes the suffix -l and the new verb becomes bastalw. Since there is no -l suffix in Turkish, başlamak became başlanmak.

In general, *-In is used more like in the first item, and *-Il more like in the second item. In some verbs, a suffix can provide both clauses. For example, since the word *kat- ends with the letter t, it cannot take the suffix *-In and necessarily provides both with *-Il.

*seb- (“to love, like”) → *sebil- (“to be loved, liked (by)”), *seb- (“to love, like”) → *sebin- (“rejoice in oneself”)

*ker- (“to stretch”) → *keril- (“to be stretched (by)”), *ker- (“to stretch”) → *kerin- (“give oneself a stretch”)

*ēn- (“to go down”) → *ēnil- (“to be gone down (by); to go down on one's own”)

*ạt- (“to throw”) → *ạtïl- (“to be thrown (by); to throw on one's own”)

*ạl- (“to take”) → *ạlïn- (“to be taken (by); to take on one's own”)

Causative and Transitivised (*-tUr-, *-t-)
This suffix provides the meaning of making someone do it or causing.

*ol- (“to become”) → *oltur- (“to make someone be, to sit”)

*kẹl- (“to come”) → *kẹltür- (“to cause something come, to bring; to make someone come”)

*öl- (“to die”) → *öltür- (“to make someone die, to kill”)

*seb- (“to love”) → *sebtür- (“to make someone love”)

If it is multiple syllables, it takes the suffix *-t.

*semir- (“to fatten”) → *semirt- (“to cause something fatten”)

*okï- (“to read”) → *okït- (“to make someone read") (Shaz)

If the last letter is t or n, it does not take the letter t even if it is multiple syllables, it takes the form *-tUr.

*ẹlit- (“to hear”) → *ẹlittür- (“to make something heard by someone; to cause someone hear”)

*sebin- (“to love oneself”) → *sebintür- (“to make someone love oneself”)

The word can take from these suffixes twice.

*kẹltür- (“to cause something come, to bring”) → *kẹltürt- (“to make someone cause something come, to make someone bring”)

*öltür- (“to make someone die, to kill”) → *öltürt- (“to cause someone make someone die, to cause someone kill”)

Let's explain with a few examples since it seems confusing.

S/he died. - Ol öltü.

S/he killed him. - Ol anï öltürtü.

S/he had her killed by him. - Ol anï anka öltürtdü.

Negation (*-mA-)
By adding this suffix to the verbs, the meaning of negation is provided.

See next lesson 8: Verbals for more information about negation suffix.
 * *seb- (“to love, like”) → *sebme- (“to not love, not like”)
 * *bar- (“to go”) → *barma- (“to not go”)

*-lA-
Here are some examples:

*tïŋ (dead noun) → *tïŋla- (“to listen; to hear; to consider, meditate”)

*āŋ (“intelligence”) → *āŋla- (“to understand; to hear; to discern”)

*yï̄g (“weeping, crying”) → *yï̄gla- (“to weep, cry”) (Proto-Shaz)

*āb (“hunt”) → *ābla- (“to hunt”) (Proto-Shaz)

*-lAn-
It is provided by the previously mentioned *-lA- and *-n-. This suffix gives the meaning of to have (something). Here are some examples:

*eb (house) → *eblen- (“to have a house; to marry”)

*āb (“hunt”) → *āblan- (“to have a hunt”) (Proto-Shaz)

*-Ar-, *-r-
This suffix gives the meaning of to turn (something). It seems to be used only in colors. Here are some examples;

*kȫk (blue) → *kȫker- (“to turn blue”)

*kara (black) → *karar- (“to turn black”)

*siarïg (yellow, white) → *siarïgar- (“to turn yellow, white”)

*-gA-
Here are some examples:

*kẹr (dead noun) → *kẹrge- (“to need”)

*em (“dead noun”) → *emge- (“to suffer, be tortured”)

Sometimes this verb takes a noun suffix and becomes a noun again, but the suffix *-gAk added to verbs and *-gA- added to nouns should not be confused with each other. For example, *bat- is a verb and becomes a noun by taking the suffix *-gAk. But *kẹr is a noun, and it becomes a verb by taking the suffix *-gA-, and then it becomes a noun again by taking the suffix *-k. In Lir, same noun takes the *-lIg verb deriavtional suffix from noun.

Dead Verbs
We come across dead verbs from time to time in Proto languages. A noun has taken the noun suffix from the verb lives, but the root verb dies when it is not needed enough. Any root used in ancient inscriptions may no longer survive.

Even after splitting into branchs, new roots can be developed. For example, çekmek (to pull) used only by the Oghuz and Arghu today may be a late formation. While havlamak (to bark) in Turkish can be associated with the sound of dogs, the word ürümek (to bark) should have been used more often than havlamak. Because ürümek comes from Old Turkic ür- (to blow) and compare to Mongolic uri- (to blow). This shows that there is a new root born in Anatolia. That's how verbs don't just die, sometimes new roots can be born no matter what century you're in.

Here are some dead verbs from Proto-Turkic language:

*döle- → *dölek (“tranquil, sedate, quiet”)

*topra- (“to turn into dust, dry out”) → *toprak (“earth, soil”)

*süŋ- (“to battle, war”) → *süŋgü (“lance, spear”)

*buŕa- (“to bear a calf”) → *buŕagu (“calf”)

*küde- → *küdegü (“bridegroom, son-in-law”)

*tiakï- → *tiakïgu (“hen”)

*yum- → *yumuĺ (“work”)

*in- → *ingek (“cow”)

*eĺ-(/eĺč-) → *eĺgek (“donkey”)

*čï̄p- → *čï̄pgan (“furuncle; rash, pimple”) (see next lesson verbals for the suffix) Next Lesson: Verbals