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Circumfix
 
 
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A circumfix is an affix
Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
, a morpheme
Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
 that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes
Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
, that are attached at the end; and infix
Infix

An infix is an affix inserted inside a stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix....
es, inserted in the middle. See also epenthesis
Epenthesis

In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence and anaptyxis ....
. Circumfixes are extremely common in Malay and Georgian
Georgian language

Georgian is the official language of Georgia , a country in the Caucasus .Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad ....
.

The circumfix is probably most widely known from the German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 past participle (ge- -t for regular verbs). The verb spielen, for example, has the participle gespielt.






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A circumfix is an affix
Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
, a morpheme
Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
 that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes
Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
, that are attached at the end; and infix
Infix

An infix is an affix inserted inside a stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix....
es, inserted in the middle. See also epenthesis
Epenthesis

In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence and anaptyxis ....
. Circumfixes are extremely common in Malay and Georgian
Georgian language

Georgian is the official language of Georgia , a country in the Caucasus .Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad ....
.

The circumfix is probably most widely known from the German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 past participle (ge- -t for regular verbs). The verb spielen, for example, has the participle gespielt. Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 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
Robert Herrick (poet)

Robert Herrick was a 17th century English poet....
).

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

In most North African and some Levantine varieties of Arabic
Varieties of Arabic

The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many Variety that diverge widely from one another?both from country to country and within a single country....
, 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
Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic is a Varieties of Arabic of the Arabic language of the Semitic languages branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo....
 bitgibuhum-laha ("You bring them to her") is negated as ma-bitgibuhum-lahaš ("You don't bring them to her").

In Japanese
Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
, some linguists consider o- -ni naru and o- -suru to be honorific circumfixes; for example yomu ? o-yomi ni naru (respectful), o-yomi suru (humble).

In Berber languages
Berber languages

The Berber languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, as well as by Berber people communities in parts of Niger and Mali....
 the feminine is marked with the circumfix t…t. The word afus (hand) becomes tafust. In Kabyle
Kabyle

Kabyle refers to*the Kabyle people, an ethnic group in Algeria*the Kabyle language*the Kabyle ethnic homeland, a region called Kabylie in French...
, ?issli? "bride" derives from issli "groom".

Negation in Guaraní
Guaraní language

Guaran? is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tup?-Guaran? subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by 94% of the population....
 is also done with circumfixes, nd- -i and nd- -mo'ãi for future
Future tense

In grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future ....
 negations.

In Hungarian
Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic languages unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries....
, superlative
Superlative

In grammar the superlative of an adjective or adverb is the greatest form of adjective or adverb which indicates that something has some feature to a greater degree than anything it is being compared to in a given context....
 is formed by the circumfix leg...bb. In legnagyobb "biggest", for example, the root is nagy "big" and the circumfix is leg- -bb.

See also

  • Infix
    Infix

    An infix is an affix inserted inside a stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix....
  • Suffix
    Suffix

    In grammar, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the grammatical conjugation of verbs....
  • Prefix
    Prefix

    A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. The word "prefix" is itself made up of the stem fix , and the prefix pre- , both of which are derived from Latin root s....