cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/33025461

I’m doing some conlanging for a book and I’m having trouble finding the word for how we can take a verb, add -er at the end, and get a word for a person who does that thing. For example, a driver is someone who drives, a commander is someone who commands, a lawyer is someone who laws, and a finger is someone who fings. I am having trouble finding out how other languages noun their verbs in this way since I don’t know what this thing is called. Pls halp.

  • Lvxferre [he/him]M
    3·
    15 days ago

    I see two ways to do so:

    1. Have multiple agent noun affixes, each for a type of agent. For example I feel like Spanish -dor is more often used for someone who’s repeatedly doing something, while -nte is someone doing it now.
    2. Apply the affix not to the base form of the verb, but to a conjugated form, in a way that preserves tense/aspect/mood information.

    So, as an example of #2. Let’s say your conlang has the verb “lug” (to do), and here’s part of its conjugation:

    • indicative perfect past - lugene (they did)
    • indicative imperfect past - lugavo (they were doing)
    • indicative habitual present - lugien (they often do, they typically do)
    • indicative progressive present - lug (they’re currently doing)
    • [etc.]

    And your agent suffix is, dunno, -bor. Most languages would apply it into the base form and call it a day, so you’d get “lugbor”; you could instead do something like

    • lugenebor - the one who did
    • lugavobor - the one who used to do
    • lugienbor - the one who often does; like Spanish “hablador” (one who talks often = talkative)
    • lugbor - the one actively doing it; like Spanish “hablante” (one who’s talking now = speaker)
    • etc.

    I feel this would go well with an agglutinative language. Just make sure the distinction between adjective and noun is clear, otherwise your conspeakers will conflate the nominalising and adjectivising suffixes.