Preverb

Although not widely accepted in linguistics, the term "preverb" is used in Caucasian (including all three families: Northwest Caucasian, Nakh-Dagestanian and Kartvelian), Caddoan, and Algonquian linguistics to describe certain elements prefixed to verbs.

Theoretically, any prefix could be called a preverbal element. However, in practice, the term "preverb" applies more narrowly in these families, and refers to a prefixed element that is normally outside the premise of verbal morphology, such as locations of noun elements, or less often, noun elements themselves.

Northwest Caucasian

In the Northwest Caucasian family, such elements can include nouns, directional and locative preverbs (equivalents of prepositions), as in this example from Ubykh:

.او کتابی را برداشت (dynamic attribute)

U ketabi bar dāsht.

The Pre-verb is normally positioned ahead of the verb. If the verb is composed of two separable components, the pre-verb is positioned ahead of the second component. The Pre-verb can be positioned at the end of the sentence, owing to versification requirements:

از کارِ خير عزمِ تو هرگز نگشت باز هرگز زِ راه بازنگشته‌ست هيچ تير

Manuchehri (11th - 12th Century AD)