Simulfix
In linguistics, a simulfix is a type of affix that changes one or more existing phonemes in order to modify the meaning of a morpheme.
Examples of simulfixes in English are generally considered irregularities, surviving results of Germanic umlaut. They include:
- man → men, ''woman → women
- louse → lice, mouse → mice
- foot → feet, tooth → teeth
In Javanese and colloquial Indonesian, simulfixation productively occurs to form active verbs and to derive verbs from noun bases. For example:
- cuci → nyuci
- tulis → nulis
- kopi → ngopi
- sapu → nyapu
- tongkrong → nongkrong
- pacul → macul''