Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

Mark J. Reed wrote:

> How common are these in natlangs generally?  I know French has
> several.....
> But I can't think of any examples offhand in other agglutinating
> languages.
>
Malay/Indonesian has some that can be so analyzed--
ke---an forms abstracts nouns
per---an forms location nouns
peN---an forms action nouns

It's hard to find a base that can have all three (or more) derivatives, and
the meanings aren't always consistent...

tanggung 'guaranteed; responsible'
tanggungan 'responsibility; guarantee, bail, security'
pertanggungan 'responsibility; insurance'
penanggung 'o.who guarantees'
penanggunan 'trials and tribulations' ???

panjang 'long'
panjangan 'extension, length'
kepanjangan 'length, duration'
perpanjangan 'extension, prolongation'

and assorted others.

However, all but ke--an can be viewed as per-/ peN- derivatives of Base+an
(usually abstracts) forms, since per- and peN-Base can occur without the -an
suffix.  Ke- no longer occurs freely




> Contemplating using them in a conlang, but it's supposed to be a
> naturalistic conlang, and wondering about realism.
>
> -Mark
>