English affixes in Tagalog

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are from Goulet (1971) and from informal internet searches and subsequent elicitation with M. Futagami (personal communication with T. T. Chan, 2024). As of March 2024, the suffix seems to be reasonably productive, but has not given rise to many established formations.

1 adjectivizing suffix

  • -able, ‘possibility marker’, noted by Goulet (1971:70–71) to be restricted to one jocular formation, tanggálable (tanggál ‘to remove’) ‘detachable’. Internet searches in 2024 provided the following examples: balew(al)able (balewaláʔ ‘never mind’) ‘ignorable’, basagable (basag ‘to break’) ‘breakable’, palitable (palit ‘change, substitute’) ‘exchangeable’, tiklopable (tiklop ‘to fold’) ‘foldable (for a chair)’.