Ali Usman Umar: Infixes and Infixation

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Infixes and Infixation Processes in Hausa Morphology

Ali Usman Umar
Department of Nigerian Languages
Federal University of Lafia
+234 706 375 8416
alusumshariff@gmail.com

Abstract

The aim of the chapter is to investigate the phenomena of Hausa infixes and infixation. While the former refers to those affixal morphemes that are inserted within roots/stems/bases so as to bring about new wordforms, the latter has to do with the processes through which the infixes are to be realized. In order for the aforementioned to be detected, the study brings closely the data-driven outputs of Hausa infixes and empirically observes their nature and behavior as they are processed. In other words, the analysis of the data is based on the descriptive approach. Thus, the study attempts to account reviews on general outlook of Hausa infixation processes. It also highlights some points of arguments debated by some Hausaists on the manifestation or realization of infixes in Hausa. The resultant facts of this investigation reveal that there are a fairly considerable number of infixal morphemes which are functional and productive for inflectional, derivational and/or reduplicative purposes in the language. These infixes are sub-grouped into three headings, namely: vocalic, consonantal and syllabic infixation as it had been the norm with most affixing languages such as Semitic and Berber of the Afro-Asiatic phylum. Finally, the study discovers additional infixal morphemes which were not found in the previous works; these include: -c-, -y2aa-, -CG-, as well as those infixes that are used in Hausa language game.
Keywords: affix, Hausa, infix(ation), (infixal)morpheme, root/stem/base, morphological process.

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