October 22, 2006, 11:11
Robert ArvanitisIrregularity
Why do some words take "ir" and others "un?" Is it mere euphony?
As in -- "Unlike the regular army, the irregulars are unreliable, unrealistic, and irremediable."
Unrecognizable, but irresponsible...
Unregulated, but irredeemable...
October 22, 2006, 12:58
zmježdThe prefix
ir- is a form of the prefix
in- 'not' that occurs before roots beginning with
r. It appears in words borrowed from Latin. It is related to the English prefix
un- 'not' and Greek
a- 'not'. I'd say that words like
irregular came into English by borrowing, but words like
unrealistic were coined in English from the Latin origin word
real and the native negative prefix
un-. For example, the linguistic term
irrealis was either borrowed whole from Latin or was coined by a person who knew Latin morphology. Also, cf.
irreflective,
unreflective, and
non-reflective.
October 22, 2006, 14:36
zmježdAnother thing. There are two different prefixes in Latin with the same form,
in- (and its various combining forms), one negative, meaning 'not', and the other intensifying, meaning more of the same. You can see these in various loanwords from Latin: for the former,
irregular and
illogical, but for the latter,
incandescent and
inflammable.