Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

On 8 May 2004 "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...> wrote:

> How common are these in natlangs generally?
  My sources mention that there're a number of circimfixing Amerind
languages.

E.g. Cree personal suffixes
* On verbs (lemma: api.w 'to be at home', 0 = zero morpheme)
  1sg:  nit.api.n
  2sg:  kit.api.n
  3sg animate: 0.api.w
  3sg inanimate: 0.api.makan
  4sg animate: 0.api.jiwa
  4sg inanimate: 0.api.makanijiw
  1pl exclusive: nit.api.nan
  1pl inclusive: kit.api.nanaw (same as 2pl!)
  2pl: kit.api.nanaw
  3pl animate: 0.api.wak
  3pl inanimate: 0.api.makanwa
  4pl animate: 0.api.jiva (possible typo in my source)
  4pl inanimate: 0.api.makanijiwa
* On nouns (possessive suffixes)
  1sg: ni(t)...m/im/om, 2sg: ki(t)...m/im/om, 3sg: o(t)...a/im
  1pl: ni(t)...(im)inan/inaw, 2pl: ki(t)...(im)iwaw,
  3pl: o(t)...(im)iwaw
* Personal pronouns for comparison (Moose dialect):
  1sg: ni.la, 2sg: ki.la, 3sg: wi.la, 1pl (excl): ni.la.nan,
  1pl (incl): ki.la.naw, 2pl: ki.la.jaw, 3pl: wi.la.jaw

  I have examples from Cheyenne (possessive suffixes, or maybe
bipersonal verbal affixes [depending on the analysis]), Cherokee
(future tense marker: da...si), Navajo (negative circumfix:
doo...da) etc.

  Other examples I can recall:
- In Chukch, a few case markers are circumfix, e.g. nominative:
  kupr@.n 'net', comitative: ga.kopra.ma, associative: ge.kupr@.te.
- In Hungarian, the superlative is formed by circumfix leg..bb,
   e.g. nagy 'great, big', leg.nagy.obb 'greatest, biggest'.
- In Berber languages, the article is agglutinated to the words as
  a prefix, therefore gender and plural markers are circumfix (0 =
  zero morpheme, @ = /@/, kh = /x/, gh = /G/, D = emphatic /d_e/),
  e.g. Taselhit a.frukh.0 '[the] boy', ta.frukh.t '[the] girl',
  i.frukh.an '[the] boys', ti.frukh.in '[the] girls';
  verbal personal suffixes can be suffixes, prefixes or
  circumfixes, e.g. Kabil verb @gm@r 'to gather':
  1sg g@mr@.gh, 2sg t.g@mr@.D, 3sg (masc) y.@gm@r, 3sg (fem)
  t.@gm@r, 1pl n.@gm@r, 2pl (masc) t.g@mr@.m, 2pl (fem) t.g@mr@.mt,
  3pl (masc) g@mr@.n, 3pl (fem) g@mr@.nt.


On 8 May 2004 Scott Barron <scott@...> wrote:
> Also, I believe German has circumfikhes to mark the perfect tenses
> (and past participle?)
  I agree with your analysis that German (and Dutch, Yiddish, etc)
weak past participles is formed by circumfix.

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