Disfix

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A disfix is a subtractive morpheme, that is, a morpheme which manifests itself through elision (the removal of segments from a root or stem). Thus it can be seen as a kind of "anti-affix". An example comes from Murle, an Eastern Sudanic language of southern Sudan:

/oɳiːt/ "rib" ↔ /oɳiː/ "ribs".

Disfixes are uncommon, but are important in the Muskogean languages of the southeastern United States.

[edit] Disfixes in Muskogean

In Muskogean, disfixes are used to derive pluractionality (repeated action, plural subjects or objects, or greater duration of a verb). In Alabama, there are two principal forms of this morpheme:

• In most verbs, the last two segments are dropped from the penultimate syllable of the stem, which is the final syllable of the root. If the syllable has only two segments, it is elided altogether. For example:

balaaka "lies down", balka "lie down"

batatli "hits", batli "hits repeatedly"

cokkalika "enters", cokkaka "enter"

• In some verbs, the final consonant of the penult is dropped, but the preceding vowel lengthens to compensate:

salatli "slide", salaali "slide repeatedly"

noktiłifka "choke", noktiłiika "choke repeatedly"

[edit] See also

• Nonconcatenative morphology
• Affix
• Elision

[edit] Bibliography

• George Aaron Broadwell. "Subtractive Morphology in Southern Muskogean," International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 59, No. 4, Muskogean Languages of the Southeast (Oct., 1993), pp. 416-429
• Heather Hardy and Timothy Montler, 1988. "Alabama H-infix and Disfixation," in William Shipley, ed., In Honor of Mary Haas: From the Haas Festival Conference on Native American Linguistics. Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3110111659