Mesoclisis

Mesoclisis is a linguistic phenomenon in which a clitic pronoun is inserted inside the verb form, rather than attached before or after the verb as an enclitic or proclitic. The term comes from Greek meso- “middle” and klisis “sliding” or “slanting,” and it describes a medial clitic placement within the verb’s morphology.

The phenomenon is most famously described in Classical Latin, where pronouns could be inserted into the verb complex in certain tenses and forms. In Romance languages, mesoclisis is best known in Portuguese, where clitic pronouns such as me, te, o, a, lhe, nos, os, lhes are placed between the stem of the verb and the future or conditional ending. For example, forms such as dir-lhe-ei (I will tell him) or trazê-lo-ei (I will bring him) illustrate the medial placement. In European Portuguese, mesoclisis remains a recognized, formal pattern, whereas in many dialects of Brazilian Portuguese it is less common in everyday speech and often replaced by alternative clitic placements or periphrastic constructions in prose.

Phonological and orthographic considerations accompany mesoclisis, including accent marks and hyphenation to reflect boundary realities between stem, clitic, and ending. The construction interacts with vowel sequences and the shape of the verb, and when multiple clitics are present, ordering rules apply.

In contemporary linguistics, mesoclisis is discussed as part of clitic theory and the typology of clitic placement, alongside enclisis and proclisis, illustrating how pronouns can be distributed around finite verb forms in different languages and registers.