Pijin Language - Transitive Verb Suffix

Transitive Verb Suffix

In comparison to their original English forms Pijin transitive verbs have an additional morpheme in the form of a suffix. To the English speaker, these morphemes sound like VERB + ‘him’ or ‘them.’ The suffix is realized through the morphemes –m, -im, and –em. For example, the Pijin word for ‘love’ would be lavem.

Examples:

bildim haos

build+SUF – house

‘build a house’

peim skul yuniform

buy+SUFF – school – uniform

‘buy a school uniform’

letem yu go

let+SUFF – you - go

‘let you go’