In
linguistics, a simulfix is a type of
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
that changes one or more existing
phonemes (usually vowels) in order to modify the meaning of a
morpheme.
Examples of simulfixes in English are generally considered irregularities, surviving results of
Germanic umlaut
The Germanic umlaut (sometimes called i-umlaut or i-mutation) is a type of linguistic umlaut in which a back vowel changes to the associated front vowel ( fronting) or a front vowel becomes closer to (raising) when the following syllable conta ...
. They include:
*''man'' → ''men,'' ''woman'' → ''women''
*''louse'' → ''lice,'' ''mouse'' → ''mice''
*''foot'' → ''feet,'' ''tooth'' → ''teeth''
The
transfixes of the
Semitic languages may be considered a form of discontinuous simulfix.
In
Indonesian, simulfixation productively occurs, for example, in ''ngopi'', ''nyapu'', ''nyuci'', ''nongkrong'' and ''macul'', which are
verbs
derived
Derive may refer to:
* Derive (computer algebra system), a commercial system made by Texas Instruments
* ''Dérive'' (magazine), an Austrian science magazine on urbanism
*Dérive, a psychogeographical concept
See also
*
*Derivation (disambiguatio ...
from the
noun bases ''kopi'', ''sapu'', ''cuci'', ''tongkrong'' and ''pacul''.
See also
*
Apophony
Affixes
References
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