In linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

, a simulfix is a type of affix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...

 that changes one or more existing phoneme

Phoneme

In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....

s in order to modify the meaning of a morpheme

Morpheme

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...

.

Examples of simulfixes in English are generally considered irregularities, all of which left over from pluralization rules that existed before the Great Vowel Shift

Great Vowel Shift

The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in England between 1350 and 1500.The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by Otto Jespersen , a Danish linguist and Anglicist, who coined the term....

. They include:

• man → men, woman → women
• louse → lice, mouse → mice
• foot → feet, tooth → teeth

The transfix

Transfix

In linguistic morphology, a transfix is a discontinuous affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word. The prototypical example comes from the Semitic languages, where nearly all word derivation and inflection involves the interdigitation of a discontinuous root with a discontinuous affix...

es of the Semitic languages

Semitic languages

The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...

 may be considered a form of discontinuous simulfix.

See also

• Affix
  Affix
  An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
  
  
  • Circumfix
    Circumfix
    A circumfix is an affix, a morpheme that is placed around another morpheme. Circumfixes 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...
    
    
  • Duplifix
  • Infix
    Infix
    An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:...
    
    
  • Interfix
    Interfix
    Interfix is a term in linguistics and more specifically, morphology . It describes an affix which is placed in between two other morphemes and does not have a semantic meaning...
    
    
  • Prefix
    Prefix
    A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
    
    
  • Suffix
    Suffix
    In linguistics, 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 conjugation of verbs...
    
    
  • Suprafix
    Suprafix
    In linguistics, a suprafix is a type of affix where a suprasegmental change modifies an existing morpheme's meaning. In many languages, they are used to differentiate between otherwise identical lexemes, but in some they are used derivationally or inflectionally.An example in English is the...
    
    
  • Transfix
    Transfix
    In linguistic morphology, a transfix is a discontinuous affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word. The prototypical example comes from the Semitic languages, where nearly all word derivation and inflection involves the interdigitation of a discontinuous root with a discontinuous affix...
    
    
  • Disfix
    Disfix
    A disfix is a subtractive morpheme, that is, a morpheme which manifests itself through elision . Thus it can be seen as a kind of "anti-affix"...
    
    
• Apophony
  Apophony
  In linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammatical information .-Description:Apophony is...