Some extinct suffixes in Khalkh Mongolian

Studying the changes in inflectional systems and the origin and extinction of inflectional morphemes is important for language history. In the course of the evolution of the language, new morphemes are created, and some morphemes die out of use. In Mongolian, there are many frozen and extinct suffixes in the root structure, but there is no research on extinct suffixes. In this article, the suffixes that have been frozen in the structure of free roots have been discussed in the example of nouns, and the suffixes that have been frozen in the structure of bound roots have been discussed in the example of visual onomatopoeia. We propose to consider some suffixes that occur in few word structures and do not form new words as extinct suffixes. In addition, the suffixes -na / -ne, -či, -r, -γa / -ge (-ba / -be, -ma / -me), -ǰi occurring in the structure of numerals, and suffixes such as -ba / -be, -da / -de, -či, -ǰa / -ǰe, -la / -le, -ma / -me, -qa / -ke, -sa / -se, -ta / -te occurring in the structure of onomatopoeic root are considered extinct suffixes. Both are included in the structure of free and bound root (onomatopoeic root) in terms of the modern Mongolian language, which agrees with Sh. Luvsanvandan’s suggestion that “one or more extinct suffixes are attached to extinct primary roots” (1963) to create derived roots. In word formation, compounding is more creative than suffixation. Due to this, non-productive suffixes and extinct suffixes tend to increase in the Mongolian language.