Infix

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An infix is an

When marking text for interlinear 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 in

None of the following are recognized in standard English.

• The infix ⟨-iz-⟩ or ⟨-izn-⟩ is characteristic of
  hip-hop slang, for example h-iz-ouse for house and sh-izn-it for shit
  .
• The ⟨-ma-⟩ infix (or "Homeric infix," after Homer Simpson),^[3] gives a word an ironic pseudo-sophistication, as in sophisti-ma-cated (sophisticated), saxo-ma-phone, (saxophone) and edu-ma-cation. (education) This exists as a slang phenomenon.
• Infixes also occur in some language games.
• The use of 'expletive infixes' such as -fucking- and -bloody-, which are words rather than affixes, is known as tmesis.

The

• Sanskrit exhibits the greatest transparency of this feature amongst the Indo-European languages, with the phenomenon manifesting in three of the ten traditional verb classes, where the infix is higher-grade and accent-bearing in the strong forms, and reduced-grade in the weak forms.^[5][6] For example, √yuj-, 'join' has yu·ná·k·ti 's/he joins' ↔ yu·ñj·ánti, 'they join'.^[7]
• Latin present vincō "I win" (cf. perfect passive participle victus "conquered")^[8]
• Ancient Greek lambánō (also with -an- suffix) "I take" (cf. aorist élǎbon "I took")^[9]

In Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, and Honduran Spanish, the Spanish diminutive affix becomes an infix ⟨it⟩ in names: Óscar [ˈoskar] → Osquítar [osˈkitar] (cf. standard Oscarito); Edgar → Edguítar; Victor → Victítor. This diminutive infix can also be found for the word azúcar, due to its unusual form as a paroxytone word with a final /r/, giving azuquítar.^[10]

Infixes are common in some Austronesian and Austroasiatic languages, but not in others. For example, in Tagalog, a grammatical form similar to the active 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 word graduate as a verb; to say "I graduated" a speaker uses the derived form grumaduate.

Khmer, an Austroasiatic language, has seven different infixes. They include the nominalizing infix ⟨b⟩, which derives lbɨən 'speed' from lɨən 'fast' and lbɑɑng ' trial' from lɔɔng 'to test, to haunt', or the agentive ⟨m⟩ deriving cmam 'watchman' from cam 'to watch'. These elements are no longer productive, and occur crystallized in words inherited from Old Khmer.

In Malay and Indonesian, there are three infixes (sisipan), ⟨el⟩, ⟨em⟩, and ⟨er⟩. All infixes are no longer productive and cannot be used to derive new words. Examples include:

• The word 'gembung' (variant of 'kembung') means "bloated", while 'gelembung' means "bubble"'.
• The word 'cerlang' means "luminous", while 'cemerlang' means "brilliant"'.
• The word 'gigi' means "tooth", while 'gerigi' means "serration"'.

In Seri, some verbs form the plural stem with infixation of ⟨tóo⟩ after the first vowel of the root; compare the singular stem ic 'plant (verb)' with the plural stem itóoc. Examples: itíc 'did s/he plant it?' and ititóoc 'did they sow it?'.

When glossing, it is conventional to set off infixes with ⟨angle brackets⟩, rather than the hyphens used to set off prefixes and suffixes:

sh⟨izn⟩it, saxo⟨ma⟩phone, pi⟨pe⟩coline

Compare:

origin-al-ly

which contains the suffix -ly added to the word original, which is itself formed by adding the suffix -al to the root origin.

See also

For a list of words relating to infixes, see the Infixes by language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Circumfix
• Clitic
• Expletive infixation
• Tree traversal

Notes

1. postfix
   are used.

References

1. ^ Luu, Chi (2015-04-28). "Fanf-kingtastic and Edumacational: The Case of English Infixation". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
2. JSTOR 455082
   .
3. ^ Yu 2004
4. ^ Fortson 2010, §5.25
5. ^ Szemerényi 1996, §9.4.1.3
6. ^ Burrow 2001, p. 289
7. ^ Burrow 2001, §7.8
8. Perseus Project
   .
9. Perseus Project
10. ISBN 9780262533263
    .

Bibliography

• Fortson, Benjamin W (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture. Wiley-Blackwell.
  ISBN 978-1-4051-8895-1
  .
• Szemerényi, Oswald JL (1996). Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics. Great Britain: Clarendon Oxford.
  ISBN 0-19-824015-5
  .
• Burrow, T (2001). The Sanskrit Language. Motilal Banarsidass.
  ISBN 81-208-1767-2
  .
• Yu, Alan C. L. (2004). "Reduplication In English Homeric Infixation". Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society. University of Massachusetts.

Further reading

• Alexis Amid Neme and Eric Laporte (2013), Pattern-and-root inflectional morphology: the Arabic broken plural |year=
• Alexis Amid Neme and Eric Laporte (2015), Do computer scientists deeply understand Arabic morphology? - هل يفهم المهندسون الحاسوبيّون علم الصرف فهماً عميقاً؟, available also in Arabic, Indonesian, French