Circumfixes

There are aso languages which have circumfixes, morphemes which are attached to a root or stem morpheme both initially and funally. These are sometimes called discontinuous morphemes. In Chickasaw, a North American language, the negative id formed by using both a prefix ik- and the suffix –o. Note that the final vowel of the declarative is deleted before the negative suffix is added. Examples of this circumfixing are :

Affitmative : chokma (he is good), lakna (it is yellow), palli (it is hot), tiwwi (he opens (it)

Negative : ik + chokm +o (he isn’t good), ik + lakn +o (it isn’t yellow), ik + pall + o (it isn’t hot), ik + tiww + o (he doesn’t open (it) )

An example of a more familiar ‘circumflixing’ language is German. The pat participle of regular verbs is formed by adding the prefix ge- and the suffix –t to the verb root. Thus, this circumfix added to the verb root lieb, ‘love’, produces geliebt, ‘loved’ (or ‘beloved’, when used as an adjective).