Interfix is a term in linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 and more specifically, morphology

Morphology (linguistics)

In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

 (the study of morpheme

Morpheme

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...

s, the most basic meaningful entities in word formation). It describes an affix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...

 which is placed in between two other morphemes and does not have a semantic

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

 meaning. Unlike other affixes, like prefix

Prefix

A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...

es (who precede morphemes they are attached to) or suffix

Suffix

In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...

es (who are placed after the morpheme they are attached to), an interfix is attached to two different morphemes and thus differs from seemingly similar infix

Infix

An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:...

, which is inserted in the middle of one morpheme.

Formation of compound words

In German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, the interfix -s- has to be used between certain nouns in compound words, but not all, such as Arbeitszimmer ("workroom") as opposed to Schlafzimmer ("bedroom"). This originates from the masculine

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...

 and neuter genitive

Genitive case

In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...

 singular suffix -s.

In English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, when technical compound words are formed from non-technical roots, an -o- interfix is sometimes used, as o has come to be seen as a connecting vowel (speed-o-meter, mile-o-meter) by analogy to tacho-meter, odo-meter, compounds of which the first part comes from an Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 noun whose stem

Word stem

In linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...

 includes o.

In Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

, compound nouns are written as one word, and interfixes are very common. -s- is frequently used in this way, as in fabriksarbetare, which consists of fabrik (factory) and arbetare (worker). Examples of other interfixes are -e-, as in when familj and far (family and father) become familjefar, and -a-, when viking and by (viking and village) become vikingaby.

Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

 is closely related to Swedish and has a similar pattern, but uses interfixing somewhat more moderately. Examples: "arbeid" + "rom" = "arbeidsrom" (workroom), but "fabrikk" + "arbeider" = "fabrikkarbeider" and "familie" + "far" = "familiefar".

In Croatian

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

, interfixes -o- and -e- are obligatory when forming a compound. For example, "brod" + "gradilište" = "brodogradilište" (shipyard), but "kuća" + "pazitelj" = "kućepazitelj" (concierge). Unless an interfix is added, the new-formed word is considered to be a word-joining, such as "zimzelen" ("zima" + zelen", evergreen).

See also

• Derivation
  Derivation (linguistics)
  In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
  
  
• Inflexion
• Compound
  Compound (linguistics)
  In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...