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An interfix or linking element [1] is a part of a word that is placed between two morphemes (such as two roots or a root and a suffix) and lacks a semantic meaning. [2]
In German, the interfix -s- has to be used between certain nouns in compound words, but not all, such as Arbeitszimmer ("workroom") as opposed to Schlafzimmer ("bedroom"). This originates from the masculine and neuter genitive singular suffix -s. German has many other interfixes, for example -es, -(e)n-, -er- and -e-. Not all of them originate from the genitive. Likewise, it is often stated that German interfixes originated from plural forms, when in fact German plural forms and linking forms developed parallel to each other and are only partly similar by coincidence. [3]
In Dutch, the interfix -e- (schwa) sometimes can be traced back to the original form of the first part ending in an -e that has been lost in the present day form: zielerust ("peace of mind") was derived in Middle Dutch from ziele ("soul") and rust ("rest, peace"), but modern Dutch has ziel for "soul". In other compounds the -e- stems from a case suffix: petekind ("godchild") from peet ("godfather") and kind ("child"). The very common interfixes -s- and -en- originally were genitive suffixes. The much less frequent -er- in compounds can be seen as the remnant of an original plural suffix: rundergehakt, "ground beef" from rund, plural runderen "bovine(s)". [4]
In English, when technical compound words are formed from non-technical roots, an -o- interfix is sometimes used, as o has come to be seen as a connecting vowel (speed-o-meter, mile-o-meter) by analogy to tacho-meter, odo-meter, compounds of which the first part comes from an Ancient Greek noun whose stem includes o.
In Swedish, compound nouns are written as one word, and interfixes are very common. -s- is frequently used in this way, as in fabriksarbetare, which consists of fabrik ("factory") and arbetare ("worker"). Examples of other interfixes are -e-, as in when familj and far ("family" and "father") become familjefar, and -a-, when viking and by ("viking" and "village") become vikingaby. However, just like in Norwegian, not all compound words are written with an interfix. For example stenålder, which consists of sten ("stone") and ålder ("age"). Some words ending in a vowel lose the last letter. For example arbetarklass ("working class") consists of arbetare ("worker") and klass ("class").
Norwegian is closely related to Swedish and has a similar pattern, but uses interfixing somewhat more moderately. Examples: arbeid + rom = arbeidsrom ("workroom"), but fabrikk + arbeider = fabrikkarbeider and familie + far = familiefar. The most common interfix is -s-, but there are examples with -e-: barn + hage = barnehage ("kindergarten"), and bjørn + hi = bjørnehi ("bear hive" / "bear's nest").
In Serbo-Croatian, interfixes -o- and -e- are obligatory when forming a compound. For example, brod + gradilište = brodogradilište ("shipyard"), but kuća + pazitelj = kućepazitelj ("concierge"). Unless an interfix is added, the new-formed word is considered to be a word-joining, such as zimzelen (zima + zelen, "evergreen").
In Russian the most popular interfixes are letters -o- and -e- (Russian letters). For example: the word паровоз (пар-о-воз) — "parovoz" (par-o-voz) means "locomotive"; par means "steam" and voz means "cart".
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem. It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.
In Indo-European studies, a thematic vowel or theme vowel is the vowel *e or *o from ablaut placed before the ending of a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the Indo-European languages with this vowel are thematic, and those without it are athematic. Used more generally, a thematic vowel is any vowel found at the end of the stem of a word.
Föhr Frisian, or Fering, is the dialect of North Frisian spoken on the island of Föhr in the German region of North Frisia. Fering refers to the Fering Frisian name of Föhr, Feer. Together with the Öömrang, Söl'ring, and Heligolandic dialects, it forms part of the insular group of North Frisian dialects and it is very similar to Öömrang.
Danish grammar is either the study of the grammar of the Danish language, or the grammatical system itself of the Danish language. Danish is often described as having ten word classes: verbs, nouns, pronouns, numerals, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. The grammar is mostly suffixing. This article focuses on Standard Danish.
Swedish is descended from Old Norse. Compared to its progenitor, Swedish grammar is much less characterized by inflection. Modern Swedish has two genders and no longer conjugates verbs based on person or number. Its nouns have lost the morphological distinction between nominative and accusative cases that denoted grammatical subject and object in Old Norse in favor of marking by word order. Swedish uses some inflection with nouns, adjectives, and verbs. It is generally a subject–verb–object (SVO) language with V2 word order.
Bengali grammar is the study of the morphology and syntax of Bengali, an Indo-European language spoken in the Indian subcontinent. Given that Bengali has two forms, চলিত ভাষা and সাধু ভাষা, it is important to note that the grammar discussed below applies fully only to the চলিত (cholito) form. Shadhu bhasha is generally considered outdated and no longer used either in writing or in normal conversation. Although Bengali is typically written in the Bengali script, a romanization scheme is also used here to suggest the pronunciation.
Turkish grammar, as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkish as spoken and written by the majority of people in the Republic of Turkey.
The grammar of Old English differs a lot from Modern English, predominantly being much more inflected. As a Germanic language, Old English has a morphological system similar to that of the Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections thought to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including constructions characteristic of the Germanic daughter languages such as the umlaut.
The nouns of the German language have several properties, some unique. As in many related Indo-European languages, German nouns possess a grammatical gender; the three genders are masculine, feminine, and neuter. Words for objects without obvious masculine or feminine characteristics like 'bridge' or 'rock' can be masculine or feminine. German nouns are declined depending on their grammatical case and whether they are singular or plural. German has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
Tsez, also known as Dido, is a Northeast Caucasian language with about 15,000 speakers spoken by the Tsez, a Muslim people in the mountainous Tsunta District of southwestern Dagestan in Russia. The name is said to derive from the Tsez word for "eagle", but this is most likely a folk etymology. The name Dido is derived from the Georgian word დიდი, meaning "big".
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry grammatical information or lexical information . Inflection changes the grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic category. Derivational suffixes fall into two categories: class-changing derivation and class-maintaining derivation.
Proto-Indo-European nominals include nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. Their grammatical forms and meanings have been reconstructed by modern linguists, based on similarities found across all Indo-European languages. This article discusses nouns and adjectives; Proto-Indo-European pronouns are treated elsewhere.
In the Latvian language, nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals are inflected in six declensions. There are seven cases:
In linguistic morphology, inflection is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and definiteness. The inflection of verbs is called conjugation, and one can refer to the inflection of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, determiners, participles, prepositions and postpositions, numerals, articles, etc., as declension.
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Old Norse has three categories of verbs and two categories of nouns. Conjugation and declension are carried out by a mix of inflection and two nonconcatenative morphological processes: umlaut, a backness-based alteration to the root vowel; and ablaut, a replacement of the root vowel, in verbs.
Telugu is an agglutinative language with person, tense, case and number being inflected on the end of nouns and verbs. Its word order is usually subject-object-verb, with the direct object following the indirect object. The grammatical function of the words are marked by suffixes that indicate case and postpositions that follow the oblique stem. It is also head-final and a pro-drop language.
Konda-Dora, also known simply as Konda or Kubi, is a Dravidian language spoken in India. It is spoken by the scheduled tribe of the Konda-Dora, who mostly live in the districts of Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, and East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, and the Koraput district in Odisha.
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Turkmen grammar is the grammar of the Turkmen language, whose dialectal variants are spoken in Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and others. Turkmen grammar, as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkmen as spoken and written by Turkmen people in Turkmenistan.