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The nasal infix is a reconstructed
nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...
or syllable that was inserted ( infixed) into the stem or root of a word in the
Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
. It has reflexes in several ancient and modern
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, ...
. It is one of the
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 ...
es that mark the
present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
.


Proto-Indo-European

In the
Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...
(PIE), the nasal infix is one of several means to form the athematic
present tense The present tense ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present ...
. It is inserted immediately before the last consonant of the zero-grade root. The infix appeared as in the forms where a full-grade stem would be expected, and as in forms where zero-grade would be expected. For example, the PIE root "to win" would yield a nasal-infixed present stem . These presents are called ''nasal infix presents'' or simply ''nasal presents'' and are typically active transitive verbs, often with durative aspect.


Origins

Since the linguistic ancestor of PIE is not known, there can only be speculations about the origins of the nasal infix. It has been suggested that it arose from a suffix (also related to and ) which underwent metathesis.


Other present tense markers

Besides the nasal infix, PIE employs a number 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 ...
es to mark the present: , , , , , and others. All in all, PIE has at least 18 ways to form the present tense. For many verbs, several of these presents can be reconstructed simultaneously. For example,
Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well a ...
"to burn" goes back to , a present of the root which is also the source of Ancient Greek (''lámpein'') "to shine" via its nasal present . It is not clear why there were so many different types of present forms with no or little discernible differences in meaning. The authors of the '' Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben'' proposed that they were derived from a number of prior grammatical aspects with distinct (but lost) meanings.


Indo-European languages

The effects of the nasal infix can be seen in Indo-European languages like
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...
,
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
,
Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...
, Armenian,
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
, the Goidelic languages, and the
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...
. In Latin, Ancient Greek and other
daughter language In historical linguistics, a daughter language, also known as descendant language, is a language descended from another language, its mother language, through a process of genetic descent. If more than one language has developed from the same pr ...
s, the was assimilated to ''m'' before
labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. The two common labial articulations are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth, b ...
s (''b, p''), and to ''ŋ'', spelled ''n'' in Latin and γ in Ancient Greek, before
velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive ...
s (''g, k, qu''). Latin "has broken" / "breaks", from , is an example of the first case.


Indo-Aryan

The phenomenon of nasal-infixing as inherited from Proto-Indo-European is found in
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...
with the greatest morphological transparency, and is taken as a guide to examining the feature in kindred languages.Szemerényi, §9.4.1.3. Three of the ten classes identified by traditional Sanskrit grammarians have nasal infix of some kind, which are higher-grade and accent-bearing in the strong forms, and reduced-grade in the weak forms. The behaviour of the class-7 root ''√yuj-'' class-5 ''√śru-'' and class-9 ''krī-'' can be seen thus: * yu·ná·k·ti ↔ yu·ñj·ánti (''-na-'' vs ''-n-'') * śṛ·ṇó·ti ↔ śṛ·ṇv·ánti (''-no-'' vs ''-nu-'') * krī·ṇā́·ti ↔ krī·ṇ·ánti (''-nā-'' vs ''-n-'') While these were seen as 3 separate classes by the ancient Sanskrit grammarians, Ferdinand Saussure demonstrated, as part of his landmark work in postulating the Laryngeal theory, that these were slightly different manifestations of the same nasal infix.


Greek

Greek has some verbs that show a nasal infix in the present as opposed to other forms of the verb: * λαμβάνω (''lambánō'' "to take, receive, get") against
aorist Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by th ...
ἔλᾰβον (''élabon'') * λανθάνω (''lanthánō'' "to escape notice, cause to forget") against alternative λήθω (''lḗthō''; compare '' lḗthē'' and '' alḗtheia'') * τυγχάνω (''tunkhánō'' "to happen to do sth., to succeed") against aorist ἔτυχον (''étukhon'')


Latin

Latin has a number of verbs with an ''n'' in the present stem which is missing in the
perfect Perfect commonly refers to: * Perfection, completeness, excellence * Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages Perfect may also refer to: Film * Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama * Perfect (2018 f ...
stem: * "has won" / "wins" (from the PIE verb above) * "has crushed" / "crushes" * "has cut" / "cuts"


Latin loanwords

English and the other
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...
show only vestiges of the nasal infix. The only certain remaining example is English ''stand'', with the past tense ''stood'' lacking the n. However, it can still be seen in some pairs of Latin
loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
: * confuseconfound (Latin ) * impactimpinge (Latin , from ) *
conviction In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is ...
convince (Latin )


Celtic

In Celtic, the Indo-European nasal infix presents split into two categories: ones originally derived from laryngeal-final roots (i.e. ''seṭ'' roots in Sanskrit), and ones that were not (i.e. from ''aniṭ'' roots). In ''seṭ'' verbs, the nasal appears at the end of the present stem, while in ''aniṭ''-derived verbs the nasal was followed by a root-final stop (generally ''-g-'' in Old Irish). The nasal presents are readily apparent in
Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writte ...
, where the nasal infix is not present outside of the present stem, like in other old Indo-European languages. The ''seṭ'' nasal presents' final nasal, ultimately from the nasal infix, was generalized to become suffixed onto all verbs in modern Irish as the present analytic suffix ''-(e)ann'', remaining productive into modern times.


Slavic languages

Only vestiges are left, like Russian ''лечь ( oot "leg" (to lie down) : лягу (*lęgǫ) (I will lie down)'', ''сесть (*sĕsti oot "sĕd" (to sit down) : сяду (*sędǫ) (I will sit down)'' (both e:en).


Examples

This table shows some examples of PIE root
aorist Aorist (; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by th ...
s (without an infix), their infixed present forms and the reflexes (corresponding forms) in an attested daughter language. The Latin reflexes of the PIE aorist came to be used as the perfect. It is uncertain whether had a nasal infix already in PIE, since Greek is only attested after
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of ...
.


Quenya

In J. R. R. Tolkien's
constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction ...
Quenya, the nasal infix forms the
past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...
of verbs ending in any
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
besides ''-m'', ''-n'', or ''-r''. Thus, ''cen-'' "to see" has the past tense ''cen-në'', but ''mat-'' "to eat" has not ''*mat-në'' but the metathesised ''ma⟨n⟩t-ë''.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Proto-Indo-European language Proto-Indo-European language Infixes