# Directional adjectives vs. adverbs **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/directional-adjectives-vs-adverbs/758458 "2016-06-26T22:16:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/directional-adjectives-vs-adverbs/758458/1 "2016-06-26T22:16:28Z")
The four directional adjectives (northern, southern, eastern and western) all end with an “n”, yet their four adverbs (northerly, southerly, easterly and westerly) omit the “n”. How did that come to be? And then there are northward, southward, eastward and westward, to which we can add upward and downward. Why are there no upern, uperly, downern or downerly? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/directional-adjectives-vs-adverbs/758458/2 "2016-06-27T05:59:06Z")
The -wards are also directional adverbs, but for movement rather than position. Think of them as a merging of “(to)ward” and the “direction (to)”: something that moves “toward up” moves “upward”. The positional adverbs do not “omit the n”; that would imply they are derived from the adjectives. The adjectives and both sets of adverbs are derived directly from the directions themselves, but using different endings: -ern for the adjectives, -ly for positional adverbs, -ward or -wards for movement adverbs. Up and down didn’t grab the endings; you can even use them bare as movement adverbs. Why? That’s where I get to the point of having to answer “because” (perhaps someone with better knowledge of the evolution of English will have a better answer). They’re exceptions. Why are they exceptions? Because. Exceptions tend to be because: if we can come up with an explanation other than “because” then we have a new rule and it’s not an exception any more. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/directional-adjectives-vs-adverbs/758458/3 "2016-06-27T06:08:26Z")
Actually, I think I found another rule: up and down didn’t grab those endings, but neither did left, right, front and back. The cardinal and relative directions are two different sets, with different rules. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/directional-adjectives-vs-adverbs/758458/4 "2016-06-27T06:52:16Z")
[QUOTE=[http://www.etymonline.com/](http://www.etymonline.com/)] westerly (adv.) late 15c., “in a westerly direction; facing toward the west,” from Middle English _wester_ (adj.) “western” (mid-14c.), from Old English _westra_, variant of _westerne_ (see western) + -ly (2). As an adjective, “coming from the west,” 1570s. Contradictory sense of “going to the west” attested by 1630s. [/QUOTE] In other words, _wester_ was a variation of _western_. I think the former was chosen for the _-ly_ form because the result is easier to articulate. (Is this a form of lenition?) Unlike _wester_,\* norther\* may never have been a word, but _northerly_ developed in imitation of _westerly, easterly_. > [@Nava](#): > > The positional adverbs do not “omit the n”; that would imply they are derived from the adjectives. The adjectives and both sets of adverbs are derived directly from the directions themselves, but using different endings: > -ern for the adjectives, > -ly for positional adverbs, Nitpick: It’s “westerly” not “westly.” ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/directional-adjectives-vs-adverbs/758458/5 "2016-06-27T13:31:45Z")
Northerly, etc., are not adverbs; they are also adjectives with somewhat different meanings. When you say, “northerly direction”, you are not using an adverb. Would you say, “He started out northerly”? In older English, just as in modern German, there was little or no distinction between adjectives and adverbs. The -ly suffix started out as an adjective forming ending (technically a cliticized version of like) and has only gradually come to mark adverbs with many exceptions, including the ones under consideration here. Northwards is the adverb and is clearly derived from the noun. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/directional-adjectives-vs-adverbs/758458/6 "2016-06-27T21:20:22Z")
Wow, this is weird. Before reading this I thought the -ly adverb words _ **did** _ have the ‘n’ in them. Northernly, westernly sounded perfectly fine to me, though my spellcheck catches them (and they do **look** wrong when written).