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I recently came upon a number of adjectives ending in 「〜やか」that can be paired
up with other adjectives:

>   * 「緩い」 and 「緩 **やか** 」
>   * 「涼しい」 and 「涼 **やか** 」
>   * 「軽い」 and 「軽 **やか** 」
>

What is the meaning of this 「〜やか」and where does it come from? According to the
dictionary, the paired adjectives have the same meaning. Is there a difference
in tone between the adjectives?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-22T22:26:29.760
42785
2017-01-23T02:05:38.180
18296
question
etymology adjectives
Adjectives ending in 「〜やか」
First, -い versions are i-adjectives but -やか versions are na-adjectives.
Second, I feel -やか versions have slightly different primary meanings.

  * 緩い【ゆるい】: loose, easy 

> 緩く引っ張る: to pull weakly

  * 緩やか【ゆるやか】: gradual, slow 

> 緩やかに引っ張る: to pull slowly

  * 軽い【かるい】: light (weight), light (mood), casual, easy, shallow (mind) 

> 軽く走る: to run for a short time, to run casually

  * 軽やか【かろやか】: light (footstep), cheerful 

> 軽やかに走る: to run cheerfully, to run with light steps

I chose these examples to illustrate the difference, but there are times when
they are interchangeable. 涼やか【すずやか】 is rare and I'm not sure how it's used.

I think やか is just another suffix used to make an adjective, and I doubt it
has its own noteworthy meaning. It's no longer productive (i.e., new words
using -やか are unlikely to be coined any more). As Earthliŋ mentioned, many
(most?) -やか adjectives do not have their -い counterparts at least in modern
Japanese (e.g., はなやか, みやびやか, ひそやか, しとやか).

When you encounter both -い and -やか versions, I think you should just remember
them as different words. Just as you should distinguish _numeric_ and
_numerous_ , or _temporary_ and _temporal_ , as two different words with
different meanings.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-23T02:05:38.180
42788
2017-01-23T02:05:38.180
5010
42785
answer