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| Affixes |
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Aninfix is anaffix inserted inside aword stem (an existing word or the core of a family of words). It contrasts withadfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as aprefix orsuffix.[note 1]
When marking text forinterlinear glossing, most affixes are separated with a hyphen, but infixes are separated with⟨angle brackets⟩.
English has almost no true infixes and those it does have are marginal. Most are heard incolloquial speech;[1] although there are other examples, such as intechnical terminology, these examples are often more accurately described astmesis.[2]
None of the following are recognized instandard English.
Thepresent tense of someProto-Indo-European verbs, in the case of a certain number of roots, adds anasal infix (m,n) to the basicroot. The stems of the other tenses have the root without the infix, and thus these verbs are callednasal-presents. This phenomenon is inherited, and preserved to varying degrees, by some earlydaughter languages such asSanskrit,Ancient Greek,Latin language, etc.[4]
InNicaraguan,Costa Rican, andHonduran Spanish, the Spanishdiminutive affix becomes an infix⟨it⟩ in names:Óscar[ˈoskar] →Osquítar[osˈkitar] (cf. standardOscarito);Edgar →Edguítar;Victor →Victítor. This diminutive infix can also be found for the wordazúcar, due to its unusual form as a paroxytone word with a final /r/, givingazuquítar.[10]
In Portuguese, some pronominal verbal forms have infixes, likedir-lhe-ei "(I) will tell him" wherelhe is the "him" pronoun. Most seen on conditional and futures tenses of the indicative mode, but not very common.
Arabic uses a common infix,⟨t⟩ت forForm VIII verbs, usually areflexive of Form I. It is placed after the firstconsonant of theroot; anepenthetici- prefix is also added, since words cannot begin with a consonant cluster. An example isاجتهدijtahada "he worked hard", fromجهدjahada "he strove". (The wordsijtihad andjihad are nouns derived from these two verbs.)
Infixes are common in someAustronesian andAustroasiatic languages, but not in others. For example, inTagalog, a grammatical form similar to theactive voice is formed by adding the infix⟨um⟩ near the beginning of a verb. The most common infix is⟨in⟩ which marks the perfect aspect, as in 'giniba', meaning 'ruined' (from 'giba', an adjective meaning 'worn-out'); 'binato', meaning 'stoned' (from 'bato', 'stone'); and 'ginamit', meaning 'used'[vague]. Tagalog has borrowed the English wordgraduate as a verb; to say "I graduated" a speaker uses the derived formgrumaduate.
Khmer, an Austroasiatic language, has seven different infixes. They include the nominalizing infix⟨b⟩, which deriveslbɨən 'speed' fromlɨən 'fast' andlbɑɑng ' trial' fromlɔɔng 'to test, to haunt', or the agentive⟨m⟩ derivingcmam 'watchman' fromcam 'to watch'. These elements are no longer productive, and occur crystallized in words inherited fromOld Khmer.
InMalay andIndonesian, there are three infixes (sisipan),⟨el⟩,⟨em⟩, and⟨er⟩. All infixes are no longerproductive and cannot be used to derive new words.Examples include:
InSeri, some verbs form the plural stem with infixation of⟨tóo⟩ after the first vowel of the root; compare the singular stemic 'plant (verb)' with the plural stemitóoc. Examples:itíc 'did s/he plant it?' andititóoc 'did they sow it?'.
Tmesis, the use of alexical word rather than an affix, is sometimes considered a type of infixation. These are the so-called "expletive infixes", as inabso-bloody-lutely. Since these are not affixes[citation needed], they are commonly disqualified from being considered infixes.
Sequences of adfixes (prefixes orsuffixes) do not result in infixes: an infix must be internal to aword stem. Thus, the wordoriginally, formed by adding the suffix-ly tooriginal, does not turn the suffix-al into an infix. There is simply a sequence of two suffixes,origin-al-ly. In order for-al- to be considered an infix, it would have to have been inserted in the non-existent word*originly. The "infixes" in the tradition ofBantu linguistics are often sequences of prefixes of this type, though there may be debate over specific cases.
TheSemitic languages have a form ofablaut (changing the vowels within words, as in Englishsing, sang, sung, song) that is sometimes called infixation, as the vowels are placed between the consonants of the root. However, this interdigitation of a discontinuous root with a discontinuous affix is more often calledtransfixation.
Aninterfix joins acompound word, as inspeed-o-meter.
Whenglossing, it is conventional to set off infixes with⟨angle brackets⟩, rather than the hyphens used to set off prefixes and suffixes:
Compare:
which contains the suffix-ly added to the wordoriginal, which is itself formed by adding the suffix-al to the rootorigin.
