-abilir :: -abilis Turkish-Latin Parallel
Hey everyone! I just noticed a possible parallel between Turkish and English (and ultimately Latin) which I find a bit astonishing.
-abilir - Turkish affix denoting ability
-abilis - Latin suffix denoting ability
-abilis is where English gets the words, "able" and "ability," and the suffix "-able" in words like "lovable."
I know one is backwards from the other (sevebilir means "can love" and lovable means "can be loved"), and -abilir is said simply to come from bilmek, but still, I find it to be rather a staggering coincidence!
Has anyone noticed this or thought about this before? I tried searching the web, but I didn't find any references to it.
3 Comments
They actually aren't related, but it is a great coincident. The suffix -(y)Abil is actually a verb compound.
Verb root + -(y)A + bilmek.
It blew my mind when I first learned it though :D -(y)Abil just looks like it has to do with ability. :D
This was one of my happiest surprises about Turkish. I don't know enough linguistic history to know whether -abilir and -abilis are related, but I've found it to be very useful as a memory aid: as soon as I see "something-abilir" or "something-ebilir" I know we're talking about being "able" to do something. (Turkish is so different from English that I'm always ridiculously excited to find anything that looks a little familiar..... =) )
