Re: Greek suffix -ene
in reply to a message by Shadowfax
Not necessarily. At first when the suffix -ne/-nos was added to a root, the conjugal vowel was supplied by the root, but for complicated reasons (partly through comparison with the adjectival suffix -ine/-inos), the assumption was made that the vowel was part of the suffix. So Selas (light, bright) + -ne becomes Selene (with levelling, in Doric the suffix is -na so it remains Selana), but it was later treated as if it was Sel- + -ene and the new suffix applied to other words. The suffix forms a new derivative noun from the root (just as -inos formed adjectives), with a variable meaning. It doesn't necessarily form them into a name, it just indicates the new word is related to the root. There are a few cases where -ne may have formed nouns without a conjugal vowel from the root, but in these it is not treated as a suffix as the root is not used in any other context.
This message was edited 8/17/2020, 8:40 AM