English Agentive Suffix – er is morpheme that is added in the last of words modifying their meanings to the doer of that act. Let us look at some common words having this agentive suffix –er and their counterparts in Hindi and we must ponder over as to whether both languages English and Hindi utilize agentive suffixes to make new words. Here is the list:
SN English Words Hindi Words
1. Teacher अध्यापक
2. Writer लेखक
3. Singer गायक
4. Dancer नर्तक
5. Player खिलाड़ी
6. Runner दौड़ने वाला
7. Jumper कूदने वाला
9. Thinker विचारक
10. Explorer अन्वेषक
11. Leader नेता
12. Follower अनुयायी
13. Listener श्रोता
14. Speaker वक्ता
15. Reader पाठक
16. Builder निर्माता
17. Maker उत्पादक
18. Helper सहायक
19. Rescuer बचावकर्ता
20. Discoverer खोजकर्ता
21. Publisher प्रकाशक
22. Researcher शोधकर्ता
We can see there are agentive suffixes in Hindi also. While finding equivalent Hindi words to English ones in the table, we find Hindi words that also have been formed by adding suffix to them. In words like अध्यापक (Teacher), लेखक (Writer), गायक (Singer), नर्तक (Dancer), विचारक, (Thinker), पाठक (reader), उत्पादक (maker), सहायक (Helper), प्रकाशक (Publisher), Hindi suffix क has been added to all these words just like –English Agentive Suffix -er has been joined to English words. Now let us look at some other Hind words दौड़ने वाला (Runner) and कूदने वाला (Jumper). Hindi agentive suffix वाला has been added to the aforesaid two words. Likewise, we come across बचावकर्ता (Rescuer), शोधकर्ता (Researcher) and खोजकर्ता (Explorer). These three Hindi words have the agentive suffix कर्ता at their end. In addition to the aforesaid three agentive suffixes of Hindi ता and ई also have been used as suffix in निर्माता (Builder) and अनुयायी (Follower) respectively. Hence we have seen that five Hindi agentive suffixes have been used. Here, one question comes up to the mind whether in English also there is more than one agentive suffix. The answer is yes and some of them are: -or, -ar, ist, -ian, -ite, -eer, -ant, -ent, which shall be dealt with in other posts. (Hamid Siddiqui)
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