In many accents,-en routinely gives up its vowel syllable when given additional suffixes. For example,fatten/ˈfæt.ən/ +-ing/-ɪŋ/ can be/ˈfæt.ən.ɪŋ/ or/ˈfæt.nɪŋ/.
Even in many accents where this habitual syllable deletion is less usual, the syllable loss may still predominate for certain formations that have become common words in their own right, such asgardener/ɡɑː(ɹ)d.nə(ɹ)/.
Syllable loss is sometimes prevented to avoid merging with more normalized derivatives, such as for keepinglightening/ˈlaɪt.ən.ɪŋ/ from being pronounced identically to the established termlightning/ˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ (notice thee is no longer written), even though they derive from a combination oflighten +-ing.
But syllable loss may resume with inflections that are not in danger of merging with an established word, such asenlightening, which can be pronounced/ɛnˈlaɪt.ən.ɪŋ/ or/ɛnˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/ because "enlightning" is not a common word.
Some linguistic writing on English, such asThe Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, uses-en as the name of an abstractmorpheme which forms the past participle of all English verbs. Including ones which do not actually use the suffix-en are described as "cook +-en →cooked".
FromMiddle English-n (in words ending in a vowel:flee: fleen "flea: fleas") and-en. Noun plural marker (predominantly in Southern dialects ofMiddle English), fromOld English nominative-accusative plural ending ofweak nouns (n-stem declension); comparenamam(“name”) + -en → naman(“names”);hlǣfdīġef(“lady”) + -en → hlǣfdīġan(“ladies”);ēaren(“ear”) + -en → ēaran(“ears”). Assisted by Middle English dative plural ending-n,-en from late O.E.-un, -on, weakened form of earlier-um. Akin toOld High German n-stem (comparenamo: namon "name: names"), Latin n-stem (comparehomo: homin-).
Used to denote theplural form of a small number of English nouns, the majority of whose etymologies go back to the n-stem (i.e. weak noun) declension ofGermanic languages.
2007, James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel,Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology:
There was one other user logged in, “scaredy,” and he checked the process monitor and saw that scaredy had spawned all the hundreds of processes that were probing him and plenty of other boxen.
2012, Jenny Lawson,Let's Pretend This Never Happened:
Victor and I are having a huge argument about whether or not to feed the foxen. Victor says yes, because they're adorable and— according to the neighbors—are quite tame. I say no, because we have a fat little pug who likes to frolic outside occasionally and I don't want to see him eaten. I thought we were on the same page about the fox, but then Victor went and threw an apple at it. And I was all, “What the fuck? We don't feed the foxen,” and he said, “I was throwing the apple at it to chase it away,” but Victor is a tremendous liar, and he didn't go to pick up the apple, probably because he knows that foxen love apple cider.
2015, David Greygoose,Brunt Boggart:
For now the boys grew whiskers and hung fox pelts from their shoulders and the girlen all wore scarlet skirts and braided ribbons through their hair.
Not productive, outside of occasional humorous use, particularly in computer hacker subculture. Notable examples areboxen,Unixen,VAXen, all of which are modelled onoxen.
This ending is also found on some plurals that were borrowed intact from Dutch or German, likeklompen,lagerstätten,lederhosen.
When attached to certainadjectives, it forms a transitive verb whose meaning is, tomake(adjective). Usually, the verb isergative, sometimes not. The same construction could also be done to certain (fewer) nouns, as,strengthen, in which case the verb means roughly, "to give (noun) to", or "to become like (noun)".
Although-en is a very common verb ending, it is not currently very productive in forming new words, being mostly restricted to monosyllabic bases which end in anobstruent; new formations tend to be nonstandard or humorous.
When attached to certain nouns that are the names of amaterial, it forms an adjective whose meaning is,made of (noun). This is a formative pattern with many obsolescent remnants. Fowler (1926) pointed out the tendency for the -en forms to be restricted to metaphorical and secondary senses. Changes in the form of the root noun, and the dropping of the "e" in the suffix occur. There are also orphan formations whose root has been lost to the current language.
Current examples used in a literal and sometimes metaphorical sense:
Having begun to fade by the 15th century, it was used in Early Modern English primarily to show archaic or rustic speech; there are no undoubted traces of it in the modern traditional dialects.
The weakening and loss of the marker caused some verbs to blend with verbs marked by Etymology 3; for example,Middle Englishleren(“to teach”) blended withlernen(“to learn”), which resulted inlearn having a (dialectal) double meaning.
All periſhen of man, of pelfe, / Ne ought eſcapend but himſelfe;[…]
1905 May 13, M. E. Francis, “Mrs Gradwell's Piano”, inCountry Life[1], volume XVII, number436, Country Life, Limited, page678:
Hoo'll never do no good at the music, they tellen her up at the school, wi'out hoo practises reg'lar, an' it's unpossible for her to do that wi'out we has a pianney i' the 'ouse.
Her name wasAgape whoſe children werne / All three as one, the firſt hightPriamond, / The ſecondDyamond, the youngeſtTriamond.
1860, Sir James Phillips Kay-Shuttleworth, “The Attack on the Eagle Mill—The Ride to the Rescue”, inScarsdale, or, Life on the Yorkshire-Lancashire Border, Thirty Years Ago[2], volume 1, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page61:
Nau, if ony chap ax you wheere yone getten these, yo mun say, yo hadden um fro' t' boggart o' Deerpley Fell. Good-bye, meaustur; and nau, lads, let's to our wark.
1883, Charlotte Sophia Burne, Georgina Frederica Jackson,Shropshire Folk-lore: A Sheaf of Gleanings[3], volume 1, London: Trübner & Company, page46:
[…] but they tooken on 'em soft, an' maden out as they wun right glad to see 'em agen, an axt 'em to come in an' a some mate an' drink.
Though it slightly outlived the homophonous infinitival ending in the standard language, verbal plural-en disappeared from it during the 15th century except as a conscious archaism, despite being maintained in the traditional dialects of England's northwestern Midlands (southern Cheshire, Derbyshire, southern Lancashire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire) and northeastern Wales, though it was lost there in the past tense over the course of the 19th century.
If the noun from which the singular definite is formed already ends in an unstressed schwa, this is not doubled:kage, kagen (but if the-e is stressed, a schwa is appended normally:ske, skeen; allé, alléen). If it ends with a consonant and the last vowel is short, the last consonant is usually doubled in native and nativized words, if it is one of {k, l, m, n, p, s, t}:hat, hatten. This is however not a reliable rule.
In most regions the final-n is silent except optionally inenunciation and as ahiatus breaker before a (typically unstressed) vowel in the following word. In western Belgium and parts of the north-eastern Netherlands, however, the/n/ is commonly sounded and may become syllabic[m̩],[n̩],[ŋ̍] (as in German, see below).
Suffix for the genitive plural. Usually preceded by the plural marker-i- or-j-, but may also have a consonant separator-d- after the plural marker if the words would otherwise have 3 consecutive vowels.
(possessive)A variant for the third-person suffix-nsa.
(personal)Forms the impersonal potential present forms of verbs. Appended to the impersonal potential stem, which consists of the first infinitive followed by the potential mood marker-ne-.
Accordingly, the suffix is also applied to verbs borrowed from other languages, and may be understood as the suffix for denominal verbs in general (actually-∅ derivation orconversion plus an inflectional suffix that happens to be part of thecitation form of a German verb).
a suffix appended to some nouns in all of their plural forms; these nouns are so-called “weak” or “mixed” nouns; they are most often feminine, often masculine, rarely neuter
a suffix appended to weak masculine nouns in alloblique cases of the singular, and to some mixed nouns in the singular dative and accusative
a suffix appended to most other nouns, the so-called “strong” nouns, in their plural dative
a suffix (in fact, the most common declensional ending) which is appended to determiners, adjectives, and participles, for multiple forms of allgrammatical cases, both singular and plural
-n is added to words ending in a vowel. Final-a changes to-á-. Final-e changes to-é-.
-an is added to most back-vowel words ending in a consonant
-on is added to some back-vowel words ending in a consonant
-en is added to front-vowel words ending in a consonant, as well as some front-vowel words ending in a vowel. Their original word-final vowel may be lost (e.g.könnyű) or supplemented with a consonant (e.g.bő,hű).
(denumeral and depronominal adverb-forming suffix) Variants:
-n is added to some (very few) words ending in a vowel. Final-a changes to-á-. Final-e changes to-é-.
-an is added to back-vowel words ending in a consonant
-en is added to front-vowel words ending in a consonant, as well as some front-vowel words ending in a vowel. Their original word-final vowel may be lost (e.g.kettő).
(personal suffix, chiefly dialectal or archaic)Forms the indefinite third-person singular suffix (currently only in the imperative mood as part of-jen, formerly also occurring in the indicative).
forms nouns from verbs (calledgerunds) or other nouns, usually describing either an event in which an action is carried out, or the result of that action; the equivalent ofEnglish-ing
In many cases,y- and-en were added together as acircumfix.
The full-en was better-preserved in the northern dialects, whereas in the southern dialects, it was often shortened to-n, weakened to-e, or disappeared altogether.
FromOld English-an. Originally used with class 1 weak verbs in Old English, it was extended to class 2 weak verbs in many dialects and thus supplanted-ien from Old English-ian.
This suffix as a plural marker is most heavily used in early Middle English, and is generally favoured in southern dialects, whereas northern dialects largely supplanted it with-es early.
Suffix for the past participle of verbs belonging to the fourth (strong) declension, e.g.sjunga(“sing”) + -en → sjungen(“sung”),skjuta(“shoot”) + -en → skjuten(“shot”).
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “-en”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
