Re: THEORY: Evolution of infixes/ablaut?

Steg Belsky write:
>
> On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 01:46:46 -0500 Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> writes:
> > I'm not sure either, perhaps it's just spontaneous or something.
> > After
> > all, colloquial vulgar English uses infixes quite frequently, as in
> > abso-f***ing-lutely, or a line I read somewhere "Down in
> > Tumba-bloody-rumba shooting kanga-bloody-roos"
>
> Would the splitting of the word "another" into "a - nother" (instead of
> "an - other") in the phrase "a whole nother" be infixing, or just
> reanalysis of which word the /n/ belongs to?
About infixation, I've noted that in my idiolect, the Spanish diminutive
suffix -ito is actually an infix:
a masculine noun ending in -o will infix -it- before the -o.  Also a
femenine form ending in -a will insert -it- prior -a:
  perro -> perrito
  mesa -> mesita
That's nothing surprissing, if we analize -o and -a as masculine/femenine
endigns, -ito wuould still be called a suffix.
But, how about -ma ended masculine nouns, like _poema_, If there where a
true suffix, let's take off the last vowel, add -it and add the masculine
ending: *_poemito_ NO, the correct answer is _poemita_, so -it- is actually
infixed (_poemita_ is still masculine: _un poemita_).

On consonant ended nouns, they don't use the -ito suffix/-it- infix but
a -cito suffix:
  canción (f) -> cancioncita (f)
  camión (m) -> camioncito (m)
  robot (m) -> robotcito (m)
The same for -e ended masculine nouns or nouns ending in stressed vowel:
  presidente (m) -> presidencito (m)
  café (m) -> cafecito (m)
  mamá (f) -> mamacita (f) (also: _mamita_ but this probably comes from
_MAma_)
  papá (m) -> papacito (m) (also: _papito_)

Well, we could say that the -it- infix only works if inserted after the
stressed vowel, so if we look at nouns ending in unstressed vowel followed
by a consonant...
  I don't know how the Academia suggest for the diminutives of words like
_azúcar_, _tesis_.
A Colombian trade mark uses _azuquita_ as diminutive for _azúcar_, as -ito
were a suffix after dropping the unstressed ending, but in my idiolect the
more natural form is _azuquitar_, with -it- infixed before the last and
unstressed vowel.
But then no form seams natural as diminutive for _tesis_, definitively is
not _tesitis_, _tesiscita_ sounds a little better.  It's just one of those
concepts that admith no diminutive.

So this, and the English examples you are giving, convinces me that
infixation is not that weird fenomenum of those weird tribal/fictional
languages ;)

-- Carlos Th