Affixation

Most of the OE suffixes were retained in the ME language, but in accordance with the linguistic changes of the period they modified their sound and their graphic forms.

In NE the native suffixes underwent further changes. But this time the changes did not affect spelling. The development of native suffixes is presented in the following chart.

OE		ME		NE
-ere	>	-er [er]	>	-er [ə]
-nis	>	-ness [nəs]	>	-ness [nis]
-ing/ung	>	-ing	>	-ing
-dom	>	-dom	>	-dəm
-hād	>	-hood [h O :d]	>	-hood [hud]
-scipe	>	-shipe [∫ipə]	>	-ship
-lic	>	-ly	>	-ly
-ig	>	-y	>	-y
-full	>	-ful	>	-ful
-leas	>	-less	>	-less
-isc	>	-ish	>	-ish

The native suffixes which were retained in ME and NE were not equally productive at different stages of the English language history.

Such suffixes as -er,-ing, -ness, -ship, -ly, -y, -less, -ful, -ish remained highly productive in all the periods. They were used to build a great number of new words in ME and NE.

-er: villager, farmer, Londoner, roller, follower, knocker, etc;

-ing: feeling, spelling, preaching, meeting, shopping, etc;

-ness: narrowness, politeness, consciousness, etc;

-ly: fatherly, manly, lonely, cowardly, etc;

-y: faulty, weary, risky, etc;

-less: colourless, joyless, powerless, fearles, etc;

-ful: harmful, hopeful, beautiful, respectful, wonderful, etc;

-ish: Finnish, Polish, boyish, foolish, bookish, feverish, etc.

Other suffixes, such as -dom, -hood -ship became less productive in ME or in NE. They were also used to coin new words, but the number of these words was not so great.

-dom: churchdom, dukedom, etc;

-hood: boyhood, brotherhood, manhood, etc;

-ship: hardship, relationship, etc.

Some of the OE suffixes fell out of use in different periods of time. Thus, the suffix -u used to build abstract nouns was replaced with the suffix -th (lengu > length). The suffix -estre fell in disuse and was retained only in the word spinster (OE spinnestre > NE spinster). The suffix -–ling yielded only a few words in ME and was lost. The suffix –ing  was also lost. Today its relics are found in the word king only (OE cyning > NE king).

Note: The OE suffix -ing (as in the word cyning shouldn’t be mistaken for its homonym -ing (as in the words like OE ræding > NE reading). The letter suffix retained its productivity throughout the whole history of the language.

In the ME and NE periods the word-building means of the English language were replenished by a great number of borrowed suffixes.

The first layer of borrowed suffixes shaped itself after the Norman conquest. These suffixes entered the English language as structural elements of French borrowings like parliament, agreeable, princess, etc. In due course they came to be used as word-building means. The borrowed suffixes could be added both to borrowed stems and to native ones.

-ment: government, movement, amazement, excitement, fulfillment, etc.

-ess: authoress, huntress, goddess, governess, tigress, lioness, etc;

-ance/ence: avoidance, hindrance, forbearance, etc;

-age: peerage, shortage, leakage, storage, etc;

-able/ible: capable, drinkable, favourable, movable, flexible, etc.

-ous: ferocious, tremendous, righteous, etc.

The next layer of borrowed suffixes made its way to the English language in the epoch of the Renaissance. Among them were noun suffixes -tion, -sion, -ism, adjective suffixes -al, -ic, -ive, verb suffixes -ize, -fy.

The development of prefixation in ME and NE was very much alike the development of suffixation. Some of the OE prefixes (ge-, or-, to-, on-, a-) fell out of use or were lost. Others (be-, mis-, un-,) retained their productivity. Several prefixes were borrowed from French, Latin and Greek. Today borrowed prefixes are found in such words as:

re-: refill, react, reopen, reconstruct;

dis-: disconnect, discharge, discourage, disbelieve, disregard;

de-: destructive, decrease;

co-: coexist, coordinate, cooperate;

anti-: anti-war, anti-aircraft;

extra-: extra-mural, extra-curricula;

pre-: pre-written, pre-historic.