Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

On Sat, May 08, 2004 at 10:13:49PM -0400, David Peterson wrote:
> How about English?
>
> long > elongate (no *elong or *longate)
Hi,

I stumbled across this list while searching for some information on a
Latin verb, seemed interesting so I subscribed.  So, hello, nice to meet
you.

I like the elongate example.  How about in some English dialects that
use structures like: "I'm a-goin"?  I believe in this case a- -ing is a
circumfix to mark present progressive.  I can't think of anything that
the a- would be short for as in some dialect structures like "I'm a go"
where it seems to be short for "gonna".

Also, I believe German has circumfixes to mark the perfect tenses (and
past participle?).  It's been a long time since I've taken German but I
believe as in "habe gesprochen" where the circumfix would be ge- -en
(maybe the strong verb isn't the best example, how about "geliebt" from
lieben).

-Scott