# Macedonian: -mina/ina ending



## cr00mz

Hello

I was wondering what the -mina/ina ending to some words does.

Is it a -mina ending or a -ina ending?

Two words that I have noticed are kolku*mina* and gole*mina*.

first question: are these two words in the same category? Why I ask is that golem means something, kolkum doesn't. Is it a coincidence that they both end with _ina_? or is there some grammatical to it that you can't have 2 *M*s next to each other, thus making it golem*ina*? (might sound a bit confusing)

Second question: can this ending be put on other words? (all words?), and does these type of words have a name, like noun, verb, adjective etc. ?


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## Duya

I can tell you from BCS perspective; it probably applies to Macedonian as well.

Suffix -ina makes a noun out of an adjective, denoting a quality: _velik:veličina, koliki:količina, blizak:blizina, dalek:daljina, jak:jačina_. It corresponds with English -ity or -ness. Just as in English, our suffixes are seldom universally productive, thus the relationships have to be memorized. For counterexample, we have _dobar:dobrota, snažan:snaga, spor:sporost_.

I presume Macedonian _kolkumina_ derives from adverb (?) _kolku_, and that -m- is just sort of epenthetic, but a native speaker will tell you better.


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## Vulcho

These are two different endings.
-mina signifies number of people, for example колкумина (how many people), петмина (five people),седуммина (seven people), многумина (many people), etc.
-ina is a suffix for noun creation, like -ness in English, for example големина ("bigness" = size), здравина (toughness), должина ("longness" = length) etc.

(I hope all these words I gave as examples do exist)


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## Gnoj

"Здравина" does not exist, but the rest is OK.


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## iobyo

The other suffix, -_мина_, is in a special category. It's similar to the 'animacy' concept in some other languages; i.e. it specifically refers to human males or a mixed-gender group:


_Шест жени_ ('six women'), but never *_шестмина жени_; 
_Шестмина мажи_ ('six men'); 
_Шестмина работници_ ('six workers'). 

Numbers without the -_мина _suffix are used equally:

_Седуммина студенти_ 
_Седум студенти_ 

Syntactically, these forms are only used consistently without a noun, e.g. _осуммина протестираа пред зградата _('six [people] protested in front of the building') is equal to _осуммина студенти протестираа_ and _осум студенти протестираа_, but you can't say *_осум протестираа_.

From two to four there's a different suffix: _двајца_, _тројца_, _четворица_. From five upwards: _петмина, шестмина, седуммина_, etc.


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## iobyo

Gnoj said:


> "Здравина" does not exist, but the rest is OK.



I must admit, it's not a word I immediately recognized either. I did find it here though.


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## cr00mz

In your protest example, would it change the meaning if you swapped осуммина for осум луѓе/човеци?


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## iobyo

No, it wouldn't.


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## Christo Tamarin

In Bulgarian/Macedonian, the compound suffix *-мина/-mina* is a merge or contamination of the suffix *-ина/-ina* and the old dual instrumental ending *-(и)ма/-(i)ma.

*Having applied the old dual instrumental ending *-(и)ма/-(i)ma, *we get двама/трима/четирима/.. exclusively for animated masculine nouns.

For the numbers 7 (sede*m*) and 8 (ose*m*), ending in m, a dissimilation occurs: седмина/sedmina, осмина/osmina instead of sedmima/osmima. 

Next, -ina can be applied to the other numbers, too. 

In Standard Bulgarian, *двамина/dvamina* is the same as the simpler form *двама/dvama,* and the latter form is prefered.

On the other hand, for bigger numbers, the forms like деветина, десетина, стотина (devetina, desetina, stotina) mean about 9/10/100 and can be applied to all nouns.

Thus, we have in Standard Bulgarian *десетина/desetina, *meaning *about 10* and applied to all nouns, and *десетима/desetima, *meaning *exactly 10* and applied to animated masculine nouns only.

Upon dialects, both endings can simply be mixed.

And also, these endings have migrated from numbers to quantative pronominals.


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## cr00mz

does Macedonian  have the -ima endings as well?


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## Gnoj

cr00mz said:


> does Macedonian  have the -ima endings as well?



No. What's -ima in Bulgarian is -mina in Macedonian.


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## cr00mz

ok thanks for that.


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