astre, star.
malastru, ill-starred.
sabé, to know.
saberu, learned.
The feminine form often becomes a noun.
escourre, to run out.
escourregudo, excursion.
-un (masc.).
This is a very common noun-suffix.
clar, bright.
clarun, brightness.
rat, rat.
ratun, lot of rats, smell of rats.
paure, poor.
paurun, poverty.
dansa, to dance.
dansun, love of dancing.
plagne, to pity.
plagnun, complaining.
vièi, old.
vieiun, old age.
-uro (fem.).
toumba, to fall.
toumbaduro, a fall.
escourre, to flow away.
escourreduro, what flows away.
bagna, to wet.
bagnaduro, dew.
This partial survey of the subject of the suffixes in Mistral's dialect will suffice to show that it is possible to create words indefinitely. There is no academy to check abuse, no large, cultivated public to disapprove of the new forms. The Félibres have been free. A fondness for diminutives marks all the languages of southern Europe, and a love of long terminations generally distinguished Spanish latinity. The language of the Félibres is by no means free from the grandiloquence and pomposity that results from the employment of these high-sounding and long terminations. Toumbarelado, toumbarelaire, are rather big in the majesty of their five syllables to denote a cart-load and its driver respectively. The abundance of this vocabulary is at any rate manifest. We have here not a poor dialect, but one that began with a large vocabulary and in possession of the power of indefinite development and recreation out of its own resources. It forms compounds with greater readiness than French, and the learner is impressed by the unusual number of compound adverbs, some of very peculiar formation. Tourna-mai (again) is an example. Somewhat on the model of the French va-et-vient is the word li mounto-davalo, the ups and downs. Un regardo-veni means a look-out. Noun-ren is nothingness. Ped-terrous (earthy foot) indicates a peasant.