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--- Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@hidden.email>
screeved:
> Hello!
Helloo!!
> This has been annoying me since I joined the
> conlang community (which causes me
> to write so much in English): is there any
> "trick" or "rule" that can help me
> choosing between the suffix "-ic" and the
> suffix "-ical"? For example:
> historic vs. historical
> economic vs. economical
> mathematic vs. mathematical
> botanic vs. botanical
> etc.
>
> Could anybody enlighten me?
[EVIL CHUCKLE] I'm afraid this is just one of
those sieves that separates the native speaker
from the mere foreigner!
Seriously, the guideline seems to be, in the
instances given, -ic = general while -ical =
specific.
"These are historic times!"
"D Day was an historical event that changed the
course of the War."
"Economic interests drive the President's
agenda."
"This car is economical and inexpensive."
Can't say I've heard (let alone used) mathematic.
> (I know that this is not the most appropriate
> place to ask, but on Conlang a
> question like this would probably generate 50+
> off-topic responses, which I'm
> sure nobody is waiting for).
Well, it certainly is, cos Kerno has similar
adjectival endig forms (and I bet Wenedyk does
too, if you look): -theck / -theckal; -eck /
-eckal. I an't entirely certain how they work
either, except that the former are in some way
descended from a Celtic form while the latter are
Latin -icus / -icalis.
I can find only one matched pair in the lexicon
as of now, grammatheck / grammatheckal, and it's
the latter that seems to be the specific, like
English. I suspect that caratheck (friendly) /
caratheckal would have some similar
broad-specific connotation as well.
One problem is that -eck doesn't always equate to
an adjective ending in Kerno. Often, the
termination is found in numbers, exclamations,
nouns, etc.
Padraic.
=====
bla�eni ni�tii duxomь ěko těxъ estъ cěsarьstvo nebesьskoe!
-- Mt.5:3
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