Does Hausa Really Have Infixation? Cover Image

Does Hausa Really Have Infixation?
Does Hausa Really Have Infixation?

Author(s): Bello S. Y. Al-Hasan
Subject(s): Language studies, Morphology, Lexis
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Hausa language; infixes; suffuxes; prefixes

Summary/Abstract: Hausa is often indicated with the three most common types of affix, viz. prefix, infix and suffix. Whereas the availableness of prefixes and suffixes in the language is not in doubt, that of infixes may have resulted from erroneous perspectives. The so-called infixes in Hausa are, in truth, a relay of suffixes that became obscured by phonology or deletion, envisaged parallactically as infixation. In two other instances, infixation either arose as a simple case of unscrupulous use of terminology or was established on a seemingly irrelevant premise, namely the non-occurrence of a tonal phenomenon. Conclusively, the existence of infixation in Hausa is extra-evidential, and therefore questionable.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 45
  • Page Range: 7-27
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: English