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Japanese verbs can take the suffix -tai, which attaches to the ren'youkei form
and turns the verb into an -i adjective, expressing desire to do what the verb
says. I have recently wondered where this suffix comes from. Is it known? I
mean, do we know where the -tai suffix in question comes from? Someone
proposed it might be from -te + ai, love, as a comparison with how "oi", to
love, means also to want in Hakka. Could that be?
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2015-04-26T11:09:24.730
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2019-06-11T22:44:55.520
2019-06-11T22:44:55.520
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question
etymology suffixes auxiliaries
Origin of -tai desiderative suffix
According to [this
article](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B8%8C%E6%9C%9B_%28%E8%A8%80%E8%AA%9E%E5%AD%A6%29)
in Japanese WP, -たい is the descendant of Middle Japanese -たし (-tasi), which
ultimately traces back to Old Japanese (or Proto-Japonic) いたし (itasi; "sore,
acute").

[A paper referred by that page](http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40019009531) argues
that this form has changed its meaning taking the path of "painful" → "sorely
felt" → "of physiological necessity" → "of emotional necessity" → "desire".

> _Someone proposed it might be from -te + ai, love_...

It's unlikely to be true considering the oldest attested form of this word
ended in -asi, not -ai. Additionally, if Japanese speakers want to incorporate
Chinese words in such a way, they never use _te_ -form but append them
directly to word stem or 連用形. For instance, -そう in 「雨{あめ}が降{ふ}りそう」 is said to
originate from 相{そう} ("appearance").
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2015-04-26T15:00:10.583
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2015-04-27T05:31:32.777
2015-04-27T05:31:32.777
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answer