Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

are derived from nouns do not have a transitive counterpart. -lAn combines with the
causative suffix -DIr (e.g. evlendir- ‘to marry (two people to each other)’, hırslandır-
‘make [s.o.] angry’) only in cases where the corresponding -lAt suffix (see below), for
idiosyncratic reasons, does not combine with a particular root.
-lAs (-lA+-(I)ş (reciprocal, 8.2.1.4)) Added (i) to adjectives of quality to form intransitive verbs
that indicate the process of attaining that particular quality: güzelleş-‘become beautiful’,
koyulaş- ‘darken’, ‘thicken’, kırlaş-‘turn white (of hair)’; (ii) to nouns to indicate mutual
activity: haberleş- ‘communicate with one another’, mektuplaş- ‘communicate with each
other by letter’, e-mailleş- ‘e-mail (each other)’.
-lAt (-lA+-t (causative 8.2.1.1)) Added to adjectives to form transitive/causative verbs: kirlet-
‘make [s.t.] dirty’, serinlet- ‘make [s.o.] cool down’, genişlet- ‘expand [s.t.]’. Some of
these verbs do not have a corresponding -lA form.
-
sA
Added (i) to nouns to form transitive or intransitive verbs: önemse- ‘consider important’, susa-
‘become thirsty’; (ii) to adjectives to form transitive verbs: garipse- ‘consider strange’, hafifse-
‘consider trivial’.
7.2.2.2 Suffixes that attach to nominals to form nominals
A few of these suffixes are of Arabic or Persian origin. Words containing Arabic and
Persian suffixes are increasingly giving way to their synonyms of Turkish origin.
-(A)C Attaches to nouns to form adjectives: anaç ‘motherly’, kıraç ‘infertile’.
-
(A/I)cIK
See -CAK
Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 57
-(A)K Attaches to adjectives to form adjectives: solak ‘left-handed’, kurak ‘arid’.
-(A)l Attaches to nouns to form adjectives: yerel ‘local’, ulusal ‘national’, yasal ‘legal’. This
suffix was introduced as part of the language reform movement alongside -sAl, and has
the same function.
-(A)n Attaches to nouns or adjectives to form nouns: köken ‘origin’, düzen ‘system’.
-ane A suffix of Persian origin (pronounced [a:nέ]) which attaches to nouns borrowed from
Arabic and Persian to form adjectives: şairane ‘poetic’, dostane ‘friendly’.
-(A)rI The spatial nominals iç ‘inside’ and dış ‘outside’ can be used in their bare form only as
adjectives (e.g. iç taraf ‘inner part’, dış kapı ‘outer door’). Otherwise they always have to
have possessive marking (e.g. evin içi ‘the inside of the house’). The addition of the
derivational suffix -(A)rI allows these words to appear on their own and to be casemarked:
dışarı (çık-) ‘(go) outside’.
-(A)t Attaches to nouns or adjectives to form nouns or adjectives: özet ‘summary’, başat
‘dominant’.
-(A)y Attaches to nouns to form adjectives: güney ‘south’.
-baz A suffix of Persian origin which is added to nouns to form nouns: cambaz ‘acrobat’,
düzenbaz ‘cheat’.
-CA (unstressable) This is a productive suffix which: