marketer vs marketeer

[trochee]

_dkg_ asked me:

this fairly irrelevant language question just popped into my head, and yer the only person i could think of who might have an interesting (and possibly valid!) take on it. here's the question, put vaguely:

what's the difference between using an 'er' suffix as opposed to an 'eer' suffix?

in particular, i'm thinking of the difference between 'marketer' and 'marketeer' (i just saw the latter used in a posting on slashdot).

but there are other examples, too.

it seems like eer is used more often in a pejorative context or something. privateer, racketeer, marketeer, mousketeer...

or is it a simple verb/noun distinction? if you market things to the public, then you must be a marketer, but if you are someone who works with "the market" then you are a marketeer?

but then why am i a coder, but never a codeer? or do you need at least two syllables for the eer suffix to roll off the tongue just right?

and why are there racketeers, but no racketers?

my other thought was that the double letter ee might only work with words derived from a particular language or group of languages. Dutch, in particular seems fairly double-vowel-happy to my merkin orthographic sensibilites. Or perhaps it's only in accepting loanwords from the french where we couldn't pronounce mousquetaire correctly, so we had to go with musketeer (or did that one go the other way?). ach.

For a non-linguist, these are some pretty sophisticated questions, which reassures me that one doesn't have to have a post-graduate degree in order to ask useful and interesting linguistics questions. As a first stab of answering them, let's consult the Oxford English Dictionary:

-eer, suffix¹
is an anglicized form of the Fr. suffix -ier (repr. normally L. -iārius, and in many words replacing -air: L. -ārius; see -ARY¹), used to form ns. denoting persons, as in canonnier CANNONEER, muletier MULETEER; the usual sense is ‘one who is concerned with’, or ‘one who deals in’. (Where the n. from which the F. word was formed never became familiar in Eng. use, the original spelling -ier is retained, as in bombardier, grenadier). In imitation of these words (perh. in some instances rather in imitation of Sp. ns. in -ero, of similar origin) the suffix is added to Eng. ns. to form designations of persons, as auctioneer, charioteer, mountaineer (earlier -er). In many of the words so formed there is a more or less contemptuous implication, as in crotcheteer, garreteer, pamphleteer, pulpiteer, sonneteer.

The spelling -eer, replacing the older -ier, became frequent in new words in the early 17th century. Mountaineer and waistcoateer (a prostitute) afford early instances, and are also exceptional examples, of the use of this suffix. A few formations denote inanimate objects, as gazetteer (1704), muffineer (1806-7).

In the latter part of the 17th century gerundial and (to a less extent) participial formations on agent-nouns in -eer appeared, and increased in the course of the following century, as auctioneering (1733), buccaneering (1703), electioneering (1774), engineering (1720), parliamenteering (1711), privateering (1664), volunteering (1691). These, being formed directly on the ns. in -eer, do not necessarily imply the existence of a corresponding infinitive or finite verbal form, though an early example actually appears in mutineered (1682). Some of these formations, e.g. parliamenteering, were in commoner use than the original n.; occasionally, as in revolutioneering, no n. exists, -eering itself being used as a suffix.

-eer, suffix²
representing Du. -eren, ad. F. infinitive ending -er; as in domineer (Shakespeare), ad. Du. domineren, ad. F. dominer to DOMINATE; commandeer (1881), ad. Cape Du. commanderen, ad. F. commander to COMMAND.

-er², suffix
2. ME. -er, a. AF. -er (OF. -ier) in ns. which descend from L. forms in -ārius, -ārium (see -ARY), or which were formed in Fr. after the analogy of those so descending. Where the L. type of the suffix is the masc. -ārius, it has usually the sense ‘a person connected with’, and the words are designations of office or occupation, as butler, carpenter, draper, grocer, mariner, officer. (So also in a few ME. adoptions of OF. fem. ns. in -iere: L. -āria, as chamberer, lavender.) Where the suffix represents the L. neuter -ārium, the sense is ‘a thing connected with’, ‘a receptacle for’, as in antiphoner, danger, garner, etc.

You may note that according to the OED, the -er and -eer suffixes are descended (at least for some of the -er examples) both from the OF -ier, as you might have guessed, except that a few of the -eer examples are indeed from Dutch. I've highlighted in strong those bits that _dkg_ spotted on his own. Well done, sir.

And yet, there are a few questions still left open (are there any phonotactic rules for the use of -eer, for example). Any takers?

Comments

[alice-ayers.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this is something you're looking for or is just too obvious but words like privateer and marketeer always seems to have an inherent throwback quality to me, like calling a funny woman a comedienne.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

it does seem like this is no longer a productive affix. _dkg_ isn't a codeer (or a computeer, although I like that latter word, see below) maybe because it's not a suffix you can add to make new compounds.

Is that your cat in the picture?

[alice-ayers.livejournal.com]

yes, that's sophie! she's had a hard summer so it's all about her. her brother sam lives with me too.

my roomate takes photos so there are better photo shere

[trochee.livejournal.com]

aww... you're all three cute! (I can't see fairymelusine in the pictures, or I'd probably say four.)

Expect a book in the mail in the next day or two!

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

Phonotactics, in the thirty seconds i have free this morning: non-low round vowels before root-final nasals?

Transcriptions would be killer for the lazy armchair linguists(-in-training) =)

[trochee.livejournal.com]

"nasals"? Maybe alveolars... for example, musketeer, pulpiteer both use non-nasals. Which words would you like transcribed?

You've given me a thought there: seems like the generalization is (usually) poly-syllabic, and always ending with an alveolar stop (t,d,n). In -er² it's not so clear (draper, plumber). And there's a phonotactic plausibility to retaining the high-front vowel (/ir/) when following an (high front) alveolar (t,d,n).

There are still a few oddballs: muleteer, for example, seems to insert the t.

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

-er vs -teer underlying phonemes, maybe?

Not having free time to play with things is teh suck.