3.6

## 3.6.1 - Infix Location

Frommer describes three positions for verb infixes: pre-first position, first position and second position. Each position has infixes of a particular type (described below).

**3.6.1.1** All infixes occur in the last (ultima) and next-to-last (penult) syllables of the verb stem, and are inserted before the vowel, diphthong or pseudovowel of that syllable, as in **kä** > **k‹ìm›ä** and **taron** > **t‹ol›ar‹ei›on**.

**3.6.1.2** If a syllable has no onset consonant(s) the infix still precedes the vowel, as in **omum** > **‹iv›omum** and **ftia** > **fti‹ats›a**.

**3.6.1.3** The stress accent stays on the vowel that originally had it before any infixes were added, **hawnu** > **h‹ilv›awnu**. Two exceptions exist: the verb **omum** shifts the accent to the **o** for any inflected or derived forms, **ivomum**, **nìawnonum**. The verb **inan** follows the same pattern, **olinan**.

**3.6.1.4** Usually, infixes are placed only in one element of a compound verb. For example, **yomtìng** *feed* is a compound of **yom** *eat* and **tìng** *give*. The perfective of this is not **\*y‹ol›omtìng**, but **yomt‹ol›ìng**. Most compound verbs will have the verb element last, which will take the infixes. A few compounds, however, do add infixes to the first element. These must be learned from the lexicon.

**3.6.1.5** A small number of verb+verb compounds take infixes in both elements of the compound, such as **kan’ìn** specialize in, made up of **kan** *aim*, intend and **’ìn** *be busy*.

## 3.6.2 - Pre-first Position

These infixes change transitivity. They are inserted before the vowel of the next-to-last syllable of a verb, or the verb syllable if the verb has only one syllable.

**3.6.2.1** In casual conversation the reflexive perfective of **si**-construction verbs, **säpoli**, is often pronounced **spoli**.

**3.6.2.1** In casual conversation the reflexive perfective of **si**-construction verbs, **säpoli**, is often pronounced **spoli**.

**3.6.2.2** The causative reflexive, “cause oneself to,” is formed with **‹äp›‹eyk›**, so **po täpeykerkup** *he causes himself to die*. The transitivity of the original expression determines the case use with verbs that have **‹äp›‹eyk›**. See 6.1.1.3 for usage.

## 3.6.3 - First Position

These mark tense, aspect and mood, and create participles. They are inserted before the vowel of the next-to-last syllable of a verb, or the verb syllable if the verb has only one syllable. They will always follow any pre-first position infixes.

**3.6.3.1** The futures with **s** mark intention (6.7.9).

**3.6.3.2** The subjunctive infix, ‹iv›, has a restricted set of combinations with fewer tense gradations.

**3.6.3.3** There are only two participle infixes. They do not combine with tense, aspect or mood infixes.

Since the participles are adjectives that cannot be used as predicates, they will always occur with the attributive adjective affix **-a-** (3.5.1, 6.9.1).

## 3.6.4 - Second Position

These infixes, which indicate speaker affect or judgement, occur in the final syllable of the verb, or after the first position infixes in a verb of one syllable.

 Negative Attitude
 Formal, Ceremonial

## 3.6.5 - Examples

The rules given above are a bit abstract, so I give here examples of some possible inflections for a few verb shapes. The verbs are **eyk** *lead* as an example of a single-syllable word with no onset consonant, **fpak** *stop* as a single-syllable with consonant cluster onset, **taron** *hunt* the usual two-syllable word Frommer uses in examples, and **yom·tìng** *feed*, a compound verb, in which only the final element is inflected.

The meanings of some of these examples stretch good sense to the breaking point. The purpose is only to show infix locations across a consistent set of verb shapes.