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What will happen if I attach the suffixes "-ize" and "-ify" to a word that end in /ŋ/? Will they make it [ŋg]?

English Language & Usage Asked on May 6, 2021

This question is related to my previous question: Why does “singer” have /ŋ/ and “longer” have /ŋg/? but not a duplicate.

From Herrison’s answer, I learned that the -er in both "singer" and "longer" is not the same:

Singer and longer both end in the letters -er, but they don’t end in the same suffix: singer ends in the -er suffix that forms agent nouns, while longer ends in the -er suffix that forms comparative adjectives.

Now I wonder what will happen if I attach the verb making suffixes -ize (e.g. materialize) and -ify (e.g. "intensify") to a word that ends in /ŋ/ (say ring). The [ŋg] is found in middle of words such as finger, younger, stronger etc.

Let’s say there is a word (not a verb) that ends in /ŋ/ and we want to make it a verb by adding -ize or -ify to it, will the ending /ŋ/ become [ŋg] or it will remain [ŋ]? For example, suppose I want to make "anything" a verb by adding -ize or -ify to it:

  • anything /ˈɛnɪθɪŋ/ + ize = anythingize /ˈɛnɪθɪŋaɪz/ or /ˈɛnɪθɪŋgaɪz/?
  • anything /ˈɛnɪθɪŋ/ + ify = anythingify /ˈɛnɪθɪŋɪfaɪ/ or /ˈɛnɪθɪŋgɪfaɪ/?

I am talking about the accents that are considered standard (Southern British and General American). In simple words, the accents in which "singer" has only [ŋ] not [ŋg]

(NOTE: I am not concerned about what meaning it would give. I am merely asking about "pronunciation").

2 Answers

These suffixes are rarely attached to a base of this form. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following words and pronunciations (leaving out some obsolete forms):

  • diphthongize, monophthongize /ŋɡ/ in British English, /ŋ(ɡ)/ in American English
  • thingify /ŋ/ in both British English and American English

The general guideline I would give is that /ŋɡ/ is unlikely with new formations, especially if the word is a "nonce formation" of the kind that is often hyphenated: if a spelling like "anything-ize" or "anything-ify" seems possible, then the pronunciation will likely not have /g/.

The same tendency to not use /g/ applies to words suffixed with -ish, which is somewhat more common: thus wrongish, strongish, longish, youngish are all given by the Oxford English Dictionary with /ŋɪʃ/.

Correct answer by herisson on May 6, 2021

It could be pronounced either way. Compare diphthongise (-ize) which is derived from diphthong (ends in /ŋ/) and -ise and is mostly pronounced with [ŋ] (I've heard it pronounced [ˈdifθɒŋɡaɪz]). For diphthongise, Lexico and Merriam-Webster give the pronunciation with [ŋ] only:

  • /ˈdɪfθɒŋʌɪz/

However, Collins Dictionary and Dictionary.com list the pronunciation with [ŋɡ] as an alternative.

As for the suffix -ify, I think it can also be pronounced in both ways; with [ŋ] or [ŋɡ]. There aren't many ify-verbs that have [ŋ] before the -ify, the only one I've been able to find is stringify for which Wikitionary gives /ˈstɹɪŋɪfaɪ/ only.

Answered by Decapitated Soul on May 6, 2021

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