Basically

[Bert]

I was thinking about that much overused word "basically", and started to wonder why it is so spelled.  Almost all adverbs are formed from an adjective by adding -ly.  But several adjectives ending in -ic add -ally - e.g. pathetic, tragic (though the word tragical exists).  I'm sure that Answerbankers will come up with more examples.  Any explanation?

[Octavius]

periodic, periodical, periodically

sporadic, sporadical, sporadically

[Quizmonster]

Words ending in 'ical' have a compound suffix, based on the formation in Late Latin of adjectives ending in 'alis', often related to Latin nouns ending in 'icus'. For example, 'clerk' came from 'clericus'...its adjective became 'clerical' and its adverb 'clerically'.

As time passed, some of these formations were shortened in the normal way of language-change. Before about 1500, 'domestical' was a standard word, though we now use only 'domestic'. The adverb is still, however, 'domestically'. In other cases, such as 'public', any 'publical' form was shortlived so 'publicly' is the only relevant adverb.

Often the two formats have different meanings...one might speak of 'economic science' but of an 'economical wife'.

Basically, it's all to do with the Late Latin/Middle English tie-up...as is so much else in the mysteries of English!

[Octavius]

pedantic

[Harrowarrow]

No!! Octavius.

ERUDITE.

[jno]

There's only minimal difference in the pronunciation of, say, economically and economicly (economical and economic are both words) - they both sound as if they end in -ally and my guess would be that's why they're both spelt that way.