Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Agent Nouns
Agent Nouns
In todays post we are going to look at the creation of agent nouns in Estonian, nouns such as walker, builder, teacher, actor etc. as well as nationalities and other identities built from place-names.
Oftentimes we can construct such agent nouns with the suffix -ja added to the -ma infinitive stem.
�petama teach, stem �peta- + -ja = �petaja teacher
n�itlema act, stem n�itle- + -ja = n�itleja actor
ehitama build, stem ehita- + -ja = ehitaja builder
tantsima dance, stem tantsi- + -ja = tantsija dancer
k�ndima walk, stem k�ndi- + -ja = k�ndija walker
There are other endings too such as -lane, -nik and -ur.
For nationalities or names for inhabitants of place-names, the root word loses its final vowel.
Soome Finland, soom- + -lane = soomlane a Finn
L�ti Latvia, l�t- + -lane = l�tlane a Latvian
Rootsi Sweden, roots- + -lane = rootslane a Swede
Tallinn Tallinn, tallinn- + -lane = tallinnlane a Tallinner
The marked female form ends in -lanna
Eesti Estonia, eest- + -lane = eestlane an Estonian
Eesti Estonia, eest- + -lanna = eestlanna an Estonian woman
Beware that some countries do not follow this rule. The Poles for example.
Poola Poland, poola- + -kas = poolakas a Pole
The plural of eestlane is eestlased and the plural of poolakas is poolakad.
Examples using -nik are:
ajakirjanik journalist from ajakiri journal, magazine
kunstnik art from kunst art
kirjanik writer from kiri letter
ametnik officer from amet office, profession
talunik farmer from talu farmstead
Examples using -ur, -�r, -mees are:
lendur aviator from lendma fly
pension�r pensioner from pension pension
�rimess businessman from �ri business
p�llumees farmer from p�llu- agrestic
meremess sailor from meri sea
