linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

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

preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

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'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...

. For instance, the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

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 A prepositional pronoun is a special form of a personal pronoun that is used as the object of a preposition. English does not have a distinct grammatical case that relates solely to prepositional pronouns. Certain genitive pronouns (e.g. a frien ...

.) Historically, inflected prepositions can develop from the

contraction Contraction may refer to: Linguistics * Contraction (grammar), a shortened word * Poetic contraction, omission of letters for poetic reasons * Elision, omission of sounds ** Syncope (phonology), omission of sounds in a word * Synalepha, merged ...

of a preposition with a personal pronoun; however, they are commonly reanalysed as

inflected In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and de ...

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 of 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 Brittany ...

have inflected prepositions; these languages include

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 as ...

, Irish, Manx,

, Cornish and Breton.

Scottish Gaelic

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

Welsh

The following table shows the colloquial inflected forms of the preposition ''i'' (to/for). The optional pronouns that follow the inflected forms are given in parentheses. : The sentence ''Mae hi wedi ei roi iddo fo'' (she has given it to him) required the inflected form of ''i'', ''mae hi wedi ei roi i fo'' is not grammatically correct. The following table gives the inflected colloquial forms of the preposition ''o'' (of/from). 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 language family. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, the Horn of Africa, and latterly North Africa, Malta, West Africa, Chad, and in large immigrant ...

, including

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Suret ( syr, ܣܘܪܝܬ) ( �su:rɪtʰor �su:rɪθ, also known as Assyrian or Chaldean, refers to the varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken by ethnic Assyrians, including those identifying as religious groups rather than eth ...

and

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

. For example, the Arabic preposition () ''on'' inflects as () ''on me'', ) () ''on you (m.s.)'', () ''on him'', etc.

Iranic languages

Some Iranic languages, including Persian, have developed inflected prepositions. For example, Persian ''az u'' ("from him/her") becomes ''azaš''; ''bā šomā'' ("with you", pl.) becomes ''bāhātun''. 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: ' ("on him/it") → '. However, these contracted forms are very archaic and rarely heard in daily speech. In many

Iberian Romance languages The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languagesIberian 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 a ...

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

Inflected postpositions

As languages can make use of

postpositions Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...

rather than prepositions, so do some languages have inflected postpositions. Bororo, an indigenous language of Brazil, uses postpositions in all contexts: ''tori ji'' "about the mountains". 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): ''bagai'' "for", ''i-wagai'' "for me".

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