Affixation 119
1.5. Infixes
Madurese contains a very small number of infixes, which are not productive and
appear to be vestiges of an earlier stage of the language. Indeed speakers report
that some of the infixed forms are ‘old words’. Each infix is positioned after the
initial consonant of the stem. The following forms are taken largely from
Moehnilabib et al. 1979 and Oka et al. 1988 (and others from Stevens 1968) but
have been confirmed with various other speakers.
The infix -al- occurs with verb stems and adjective stems. With adjectival
stems it has an intensive function, and with verbs no consistent identifiable
function.
(76) -al-
jimet ‘quiet’ jalimet ‘very quiet’
cemot ‘dark, dim’ calemot ‘very dark, dim’
gattong ‘hang’ galattong ‘clothes peg/hook’
The infix -am- is a nominalizing affix that occurs with some verb roots.
(77) -am-
penta ‘ask’ pamenta ‘request/question’
poji ‘(to) praise’ pamoji ‘praise’
parenta ‘(to) command’ pamarenta ‘government’
The infix -ar- is used in the derivation of adjectives and nouns but has no
consistent identifiable function.
(78) -ar-
kettek ‘heart beat’ karettek ‘annoyed’
keddhap ‘shine’ kareddhap ‘flickering’
The infix -en occurs with verb stems to derive a passive participle-type
lexical item with an adjectival function.
(79) -en-
tompang ‘ride’ tenompang ‘ridden’
ponjul ‘emerge’ penojul ‘emerged’
tolong ‘help’ tenolong ‘helped, capable of being helped’
The infix -om- functions very much like -am-: with verb stems it derives a
nominal and with adjective stems an intensive form.