Middle Chinese affixes in Japanese

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information on affixes and word etymologies is mostly derived from Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Japanese_affixes ［accessed: 18.06.2024］), with confirmation and additional information from personal communication between T. Nakai and T. T. Chan in 2024. The suffixes cited below productively form hybrid formations with stems likewise borrowed, as well as complex loanwords with non-Chinese stems. Many hybrid formations involve stems that are borrowed from other languages, there are only a few hybrid formations attested with native Japanese stems. Most stems in the examples below are derived from English.

1 negation prefix

  • hi- ‘negation’, hi-randamu (randamu ‘random’) ‘non-random’.

1 verbal modification prefix

  • sai- ‘re-, indicates an action carried out again’, sai-randamuka (randamuka ‘to randomize’) ‘to re-randomize’.

1 nominalizing suffix

  • -ka, ‘-ization’, the only example found containing a native Japanese stem is kaeru-ka (kaeru ‘frog’) ‘dislike for a person one had feelings for, once those feelings start being reciprocated’ (example provided by T. Nakai, personal communication 2023); hybrid formations with English stems include dejitaru-ka (dejitaru ‘digital’) ‘digitization’, gurōbaru-ka (gurōbaru ‘global’) ‘globalization’, konpyūta-ka (konpyūta ‘computer’) ‘computerization’, randamu-ka (randamu ‘random’) ‘randomization’.