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    -air
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    The affix -air /ε:r/ is a non-native, stress-bearing, cohering suffix found in adjectives and personal nouns based on non-native nouns and roots. Adjectival -air formations such as atomair atomic have a relational meaning ( having to do with the base noun), and a comparable relational semantics ( someone having to do with the base noun) is found in nominal -air formations such as diamantair diamond seller and stagiair intern. A small number of words in -air does not denote persons but objects things e.g. sanitair sanitary facilities. The suffix is not productive, most Dutch words containing -air may be loans.

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    The suffix -air originates from French. It is stress-bearing, and cohering, as syllabification does not respect morphological structure.

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    Just like -aar (as in molenaar miller < molen mill), -air can ultimately be traced back to the Latin suffix -arius. That is, has been loaned twice, but in different times and via different pathways.

    Adjectives in -air have a relational meaning (cf. (Booij 2002: 108ff)), i.e., their meaning can often be described as having something to do with the meaning of the base. There is a division of labor with (equally nonproductive -oir) ((De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 336ff)).

    (De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 213) distinguish three types of nouns in -air:

    • personal nouns, based on non-native nouns and roots such as diamantair diamond seller (< diamant diamond), miljonair millionaire (< miljoen million), antiquair antiquarian (antiek antique(s)), stagiair intern (stage internship). These forms are of common gender, taking the indefinite singular article de, and have a plural form in -s. Some can have a feminine counterpart in -e, e.g. diamantaire female diamond seller, stagiaire female intern.
    • personal nouns, based on non-native nouns and roots such as visionair visionary (< visioen vision) and militair soldier, militairy (possibly from a root *milit, cf. below). They are of common gender, taking the indefinite singular article de. Some of these have a plural form in -s, e.g. veterinairs vets, others in -en, e.g. militairen soldiers. There is no morphologically marked feminine counterpart.
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      (De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 213) suggest that the nouns of this second class may be cases of conversion of the homophonous adjectives. A radically different perspective is taken by (De Belder 2011): working within the framework of Distributed Morphology, De Belder opines that these formations have no syntactic category in the lexicon and only get one in the syntactic process of sentence formation.

    • two nouns in -air denote collections of things, viz., sanitair sanitary facilities, plumbing and meubilair furniture. These nouns are of neuter gender, taking the singular indefinite article het, and do not have a plural form.
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      According to (De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 213), these nouns can also occur as adjectives, but for many native speakers this does not hold for meubilair.

    Morphological potential: words in -air can be input to noun formation in -iteit (polariteit polarity < polair polar) or -isme (militarisme militarism < militair military), or verb formation in -iseer (populariseren popularize < populair popular). Note that the vowel ai /ε:/ changes into a /ɑ:/, an instance of learned vowel backing (Dell and Selkirk 1978, Booij 1995: 77, cf. suffix allomorphy).

    Many cases of -air formation show phonological or orthographical changes in the base word, e.g. prevocalic deletion of schwa in stagiar intern (< stage) and disciplinair disciplinary (< discipline discipline) or vowel change in circulair circular (< cirkel circle).

    Many formations in -air are based on roots that do not occur as independent words. In cases such as militair military one might think of affix substitution, as there are other forms based on the same root, e.g. militia. Probably, most Dutch -air formations are loans. The fact that /ε:/, the vowel in the suffix, does not occur in native words is additional evidence for this hypothesis.

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    Occasionally one meets new formations in -air, e.g. adjectival interbellair (< interbellum interwar) (Belgian journal De Standaard October 16th, 2010, as cited in Taalkalender Onze Taal, December 15th, 2014).

    References
    • Belder, Marijke de2011Roots and Affixes: Eliminating lexical categories from syntaxUtrechtThesis
    • Booij, Geert1995The phonology of DutchOxfordOxford University Press
    • Booij, Geert2002The morphology of DutchOxfordOxford University Press
    • Dell, François & Selkirk, Elisabeth1978On a morphologically governed vowel alternation in FrenchRecent transformational studies in European languagesCambridge Mass.MITPress1-52
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
    About this article
    Author(s): Ton van der Wouden
    Category: Dutch Morphology
    Keywords: derivationsuffixforeignadjectivenoun
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
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    1.0 Ton van der Wouden December 2015
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