1. blatoj
cockroaches
2. forta
strong
3. maldika
thin
4. dento
tooth
5. vulpoj
foxes
6. forto
strength
7. bela
beautiful
8. maljuna
old
9. varmo
warmth
10. bufoj
toads
11. trinki
to drink
12. malbela
ugly
13. domoj
houses
14. malgoja
sad
15. blato
cockroach
16. gojoj
joys
17. belo
beauty
18. dika
fat
19. maltrinki
to throw up
20. trinko
beverage
A. What do the suffixes -a, -i, and -o mean in Esperanto?
Is this inflectional or derivational?
These change parts of speech: compare:
Verb: 11. trinki;; to drink
Noun: 20. trinko -- beverage (or a drink)
2. forta --strong
6. forto-- strength
So they are derivational.
B. What does the suffix -j mean in Esperanto?
Is this inflectional or derivational?
Compare:
1. blato --cockroach
15. blatoj --cockroaches
This is a plural and so does not change meaning or part of speech: it is inflectional.
C. What does the prefix mal- mean in Esperanto?
Is this inflectional or derivational?
Compare:
18. dika -- fat
3. maldika thin
It changes meaning so is clearly derivational, but what exactly it means is complicated.
We are tempted, because of our knowledge of English, to infer that the pre3fix means' 'bad' or perhaps 'un-',
but a more careful exploration of
the data (especially 11 and 19) might suggest
something more complicated.