General Question

Harp's avatar

Is there some linguistic logic to whether a word uses an "-ent" or an "-ant" suffix?

Asked by Harp (19179points) June 11th, 2008

…or is it just a random spelling variation?

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2 Answers

morphail's avatar

Etymologically they have different sources: -ent is from Old French from the Latin suffix -ēns, -ent. -ant is from Old French from the Latin suffix -āns, -ant. It had to do with which class the Latin word was part of.

morphail (4970points)“Great Answer” (2points) Flag as…
La_chica_gomela's avatar

Great answer morphail!

La_chica_gomela (12594points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…

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