Circumfix

A circumfix is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes (occasionally called confixes) contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, that are attached at the end; and infixes, inserted in the middle. See also epenthesis. Circumfixes are extremely common in Indonesian, Malay^[1] and Georgian.^[2]

Examples

Germanic languages

The circumfix is probably most widely known from the German past participle (ge- -t for regular verbs). The verb spielen, for example, has the participle gespielt. Dutch has a similar system (spelen – gespeeld in this case).

In older English, the present participle could be formed using the circumfix a- -ing : Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,// Old time is still a-flying (Robert Herrick).

East Asian languages

In Japanese, some linguists consider o- -ni naru and o- -suru to be honorific circumfixes;^[3] for example yomu → o-yomi ni naru (respectful), o-yomi suru (humble).

Austronesian languages

Indonesian has eight different circumfixes, namely per- -kan, per- -i, ber- -an, ke- -an, peN- -an, per- -an, se- -nya and ke- -i. For example, the circumfix can be added to the root adil (fair) to form keadilan (fairness).^[4]

Other languages

In most North African and some Levantine varieties of Arabic, verbs are negated by placing the circumfix ma- -š around the verb together with all its prefixes and suffixed direct- and indirect-object pronouns. For example, Egyptian bitgibuhum-laha ("You bring them to her") is negated as ma-bitgibuhum-lahāš ("You don't bring them to her").

In Berber languages the feminine is marked with the circumfix t- -t. The word afus (hand) becomes tafust. In Kabyle, θissliθ "bride" derives from issli "groom".

In Hebrew, magdelet "magnifier", for example, the root is gdl "big" (in the H-stem hagdel "to enlarge") and the circumfix is m- -et.

Negation in Guaraní is also done with circumfixes, nd- -i and nd- -mo'ãi for future negations.

In Czech, as well as in Hungarian, superlative is formed by the circumfix (nej- -ší, resp. leg- -bb). In Czech nejmladší "youngest", for example, the root is mladý "young" and the circumfix is nej- -ší; in Hungarian legnagyobb "biggest", the root is nagy "big" and the circumfix is leg- -bb.

References

1. ^ Tadmor, Uri (2005), "Malay-Indonesian and Malayic languages", in Strazny, Philipp, Encyclopedia of Linguistics, New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 644–647 
2. ^ Colarusso, John (2005), "Georgian and Caucasian languages", in Strazny, Philipp, Encyclopedia of Linguistics, New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 380–383 
3. ^ Boeckx, Cedric; Niinuma, Fumikazu (2004), "Conditions on Agreement in Japanese", Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 22 (3): 453–480, doi:10.1023/B:NALA.0000027669.59667.c5, http://www.springerlink.com/content/xp77097378842286/ 
4. ^ Baryadi, I. Praptomo (2011) (in Indonesian). Morfologi dalam Ilmu Bahasa. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University Publishers. pp. 42–43. 

See also

• Infix
• Suffix
• Prefix