Middle Low German affixes in Danish

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

This entry deals only with the Middle Low German influence on Danish. Information and examples are mainly from Den Danske Ordbog (Sørensen and Sørensen 2024) and Wiktionary. Collectively, these affixes are ubiquitous and fulfill a broad range of functions, modifying native and non-native stems to derive adjectives, nouns, and verbs, although they differ in how productive they are in the modern language. Middle Low German has contributed a similar set of affixes to Norwegian (Skancke 2001:54) and Swedish (Peters 1983:115), although like for Danish, there is a lack of information on hybrid formations in the literature.

5 nominalizer suffixes

  • -else, ‘abstract noun formed from a verb or adjective’, e.g. påmindelse (påminde ‘admonish, remind’) ‘reminder, admonition, warning’, betændelse (betænde ‘to inflame’) ‘inflammation’, størrelse (stor ‘large, great’) ‘size, dimensions, volume’, ragelse (rage ‘to scrape’) ‘rubbish’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Danish_terms_suffixed_with_-else ［accessed: 02.04.2024］).
  • -eri, ‘abstract or location noun formed from a verb’, e.g. bryggeri (brygge ‘to brew’) ‘brewery’, luskeri (luske ‘to sneak’) ‘sneaky business’. Another example here is a noun derived from a noun: tyveri (tyv ‘thief’) ‘theft’, (Wiktionary: https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/Categorie:Achtervoegsel_-eri_in_het_Deens ［accessed: 02.04.2024］, Den Danske Ordbog: https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?entry_id=51001302&query=-eri ［accessed: 03.07.2025］).
  • -hed, ‘abstract noun formed from an adjective’, e.g. bleghed (bleg ‘pale’) ‘paleness’, nøjsomhed (nøjsom ‘frugal’) ‘frugality’, synlighed (synlig ‘visible’) ‘visibility’, vanskelighed (vanskelig ‘difficult’) ‘difficulty’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Danish_terms_suffixed_with_-hed ［accessed: 02.04.2024］).
  • -inde, ‘feminine noun formed from another noun’, e.g. elskerinde (elsker ‘lover’) ‘mistress’, mandinde (mand ‘man’) ‘woman’ (obsolete), veninde (ven ‘friend’) ‘female friend’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Danish_terms_suffixed_with_-inde ［accessed: 02.04.2024］).
  • -tøj, ‘noun formed from an associated noun or from a verb indicating an action facilitated by the noun’, e.g. hovedtøj (hoved ‘head’) ‘headwear’, køretøj (køre ‘to drive’) ‘vehicle’, lukketøj (lukke ‘to close, lock’) ‘device with which to close or lock something’, troldtøj (trold ‘troll’) ‘mythical beings such as trolls and elves’ (https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=-t%C3%B8j ［accessed: 03.07.2025］).

3 adjectivizing suffixes

  • -bar, ‘adjective indicating possibility formed from a verb’, e.g. drikbar (drikke ‘to drink’) ‘potable, drinkable’, flytbar (flytte ‘to move, remove’) ‘movable’, salgbar (salge ‘to sell’) ‘marketable, sellable’ (https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=-bar ［accessed: 03.07.2025］).
  • -ig, ‘adjective formed from a noun’, it displaced the native Old Danish -ugh but is no longer productive, e.g. mandig (mand ‘man’) ‘manly, masculine’, yndig (ynde ‘grace’) ‘lovely, charming, beautiful in a graceful way (often with connotations of femininity)’, lydig (lyde ‘(dated) to obey’) ‘obedient’, tålmodig (tålmod ‘patience’) ‘patient’ (https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=-ig ［accessed: 03.07.2025］).
  • -agtig, ‘adjective formed from a noun’, e.g. barnagtig (barn ‘child’) ‘childish’, trælagtig (træl ‘slave’) ‘slave-like’, grinagtig (grin ‘laugh’) ‘ridiculous’. This form is functionally a lexically conditioned allomorph of -ig, but it is listed separately because of the distinct affix form (Den Danske Ordbog: https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=-agtig ［accessed: 03.07.2025］, Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Danish_terms_suffixed_with_-agtig ［accessed: 02.04.2024］).

2 prefixes for adjectival and nominal modification

  • old-, ‘adjective/adjectival noun formed from another adjective or noun indicating antiquity’, e.g. olddansk (dansk ‘Danish’) ‘Old Danish’, oldengelsk (engelsk ‘English’) ‘Old English’, oldgræsk (græsk ‘Greek’) ‘Ancient Greek’, oldtid (tid ‘time’) ‘antiquity, ancient times’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Danish_terms_prefixed_with_old- ［accessed: 02.04.2024］).
  • ur-, ‘noun formed from another noun, indicating antiquity, or adjective/ adjectival noun formed from another adjective, with intensified meaning’, e.g. urbeboer (beboer ‘inhabitant’) ‘earliest inhabitant(s) of a locality’, urgammel (gammel ‘old’) ‘very old`’ (https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=ur- ［accessed: 03.07.2025］). This prefix may be from German, not Low German.

1 verbalizer/adjectivizer prefix

  • be-, ‘adjective or verb with a complex set of meanings and functions’. This borrowed prefix often occurs with various native suffixes, such as -et and -e, e.g. behjertet (hjerte ‘heart’) ‘brave’, belortet (lort ‘shit, crap’) ‘covered in faeces, shit, goddamned’, berolige (rolig ‘calm’) ‘to calm, soothe’, besejre (sejre ‘to triumph, be victorious’) ‘to conquer, defeat’, bevidne (vidne ‘witness’) ‘to testify’ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Danish_terms_prefixed_with_be-, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/be-#Danish ［both accessed: 02.04.2024］).

1 verbalizer prefix

  • for-, ‘verb, often with a causative or change-of-state meaning, formed from another verb or an adjective’, e.g. forelske (elske ‘love’) ‘to fall in love’, forstørre (stor ‘big’) ‘to enlarge’, forsvare (svare ‘to answer, reply, respond’) ‘to defend’, forvente (vente ‘to wait’) ‘to expect’ (https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?select=for-,2&query=for- ［accessed: 03.07.2025］).