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Num+N+ich
quickinfo

The suffix -ich is productively involved in adjectival synthetic compounds, after a numeral and a noun. An example is twatalich two-language-SUFF bilingual.

There are also synthetic compounds with the relatively similar pattern adjective + noun + -ich. The suffix -ich also derives adjectives from simplex nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives; more information can be found in -ich with noun as base.

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[+]General properties

The pattern numeral + noun + the suffix -ich is productive. Some examples are given below:

Table 1
numeral noun suffix synthetic compound
ien one foarm form -ich ienfoarmich uniform
twa two taal language -ich twatalich bilingual
trije three foet foot -ich trijefuottich three-footed
fjouwer four stim voice -ich fjouwerstimmich four-part
tsien ten rigel line -ich tsienrigelich ten-line

The semantics is something like 'having the property of the number of the noun'. So, in twatalich two-language-SUFF bilingual two languages are involved.

[+]Phonological properties

The suffix is cohering; the consonant cluster before the suffix is resyllabified, for instance twatalich bilingual receives the syllable structure twa-ta-lich. The stress in these synthetic compounds is always on the noun, hence twatalich This is in accordance with the property of -ich in ordinary derivations, in which it also attracts stress. However, if the adjective is used attributively, the stress is on the first syllable: in twatalige opfieding a bilingual education, as a result of stress retraction.

References
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