linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, an inflected preposition is a type of word that occurs in some languages, that corresponds to the combination of a

preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...

and a

personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it''). Personal pronouns may also take different f ...

. For instance, the Welsh word ' () is an inflected form of the preposition ''i'' meaning "to/for him"; it would not be grammatically correct to say *'.

Terminology and analysis

There are many different names for inflected prepositions, including conjugated preposition, pronominal preposition, prepositional pronoun, and suffixed pronoun. (But note that the term ''prepositional pronoun'' also has a different sense, for which see Prepositional pronoun.) Historically, inflected prepositions can develop from the contraction of a preposition with a personal pronoun; however, they are commonly reanalysed as

inflected In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...

words by native speakers and by traditional grammar. Language change over time can obscure the similarity between the conjugated preposition and the preposition-pronoun combination. For example, in Scottish Gaelic "with" is ' and "him" is ' , but "with him" is ' .

Distribution

Insular Celtic

All

Insular Celtic languages Insular Celtic languages are the group of Celtic languages spoken in Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Insular group, including Breton, which is spoken on continental Europe in Br ...

have inflected prepositions; these languages include

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

, Irish, Manx, Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

Scottish Gaelic

The following table shows the inflected forms of the preposition . These forms are a combination of preposition and pronoun, and are obligatory; that is, the separate preposition plus pronoun is ungrammatical. Also no separate pronoun may also be given after these combined forms. (So is ungrammatical.) :

Welsh

The following table shows the colloquial inflected forms of the preposition . The optional pronouns that follow the inflected forms are given in parentheses. : The sentence required the inflected form of , is not grammatically correct. The following table gives the inflected colloquial forms of the preposition . The optional pronouns that follow the inflected forms are given in parentheses. :

Semitic

Inflected prepositions are found in many

Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew language, Hebrew, Maltese language, Maltese, Modern South Arabian language ...

, including

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Suret ( Help:IPA for Aramaic, �suːrɪtʰor Help:IPA for Aramaic, �suːrɪθ, also known as Assyrian, refers to the varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken by Christians, namely Assyrian people, Assyrians.Nordhoff, Sebast ...

and

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

. For example, the Arabic preposition () inflects as () , ) () , () , etc.

Iranic languages

Some Iranic languages, including Persian, have developed inflected prepositions. For example, Persian becomes ; becomes . These forms are non-obligatory and are used especially in the colloquial register, though some of them are also possible in the standard language. As the two examples show, they are not mere contractions but a system of inflectional endings attached to the preposition.

Other languages

Languages that do not have full paradigms of inflected prepositions may nonetheless allow contraction of prepositions and pronouns to a more limited extent. In formal registers of Polish, a handful of common prepositions allow amalgamated forms with third-person pronouns: → . These contracted forms were often recommended to use in formal writing. However, they are rarely heard in daily speech. In many

Iberian Romance languages The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages Iberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language. are ...

, such as Spanish and Portuguese, the preposition or has special forms incorporating certain pronouns (depending on the language). For example, in Spanish and Asturian means . Historically, this developed from the Latin use of after a pronoun, as in .

Inflected postpositions

As languages can make use of postpositions rather than prepositions, so do some languages have inflected postpositions. Bororo, an indigenous language of Brazil, uses postpositions in all contexts: . When these modify a pronoun rather than a full noun, the phrase contracts into an inflected postposition (and therefore looks like a pronominal prefix, rather than a suffix as in the examples above: , ).

Athabaskan languages Athabaskan ( ; also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large branch of the Na-Dene languages, Na-Dene language family of North America, located in western North America in three areal language ...

such as

Dakelh The Dakelh (pronounced ) or Carrier are a First Nations in Canada, First Nations Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people living a large portion of the British Columbia Interior, Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The Dakel ...

also have inflected postpositions. For example, in the Stuart Lake dialect "for (the benefit of)" is ''ba'', but "for me" is ''sba'', not ''si ba'', "for us" is ''neba'', not ''wheni ba'', "for you (one person)" is ''mba'', not ''nyun ba'', and "for them" is ''buba'', not enne ba''.

References

External links

Examples of Irish prepositional pronouns

Explanation of Scottish prepositional pronouns

in Biblical Hebrew
Prepositions with pronominal suffixes
in Biblical Hebrew {{lexical categories, state=collapsed Linguistic morphology Prepositions