enclisis

Enclisis is a linguistic phenomenon in which a clitic or particle attaches to the end of the preceding word, forming a single phonological word. The clitic is typically unstressed and serves a grammatical function, such as a pronoun or particle, rather than bearing independent semantic content.

Enclisis is contrasted with proclisis, where the clitic precedes the word it attaches to. The distribution of enclisis varies by language and syntax and is often tied to prosody, tense, aspect, or mood. In many languages, enclisis interacts with word order and morphological forms, appearing most commonly with verbs and certain function words.

Historically, enclisis is well documented in Classical Latin, which used enclitic particles such as -ne (a question marker) attached to the preceding word, and -que (meaning “and”), which can attach to the end of a word or clause (pater filioque “father and son”). In the Romance languages that descended from Latin, enclisis remains productive with pronominal clitics attached to verbs in various constructions.

Modern Romance languages illustrate enclisis with clitic pronouns attached to finite verb forms. In Spanish, pronouns may be attached to the end of a verb, as in dilo (say it). In Italian, forms like fammi (give me) or portamelo (bring it to me) show enclisis with multiple clitics. In Portuguese, examples include fala-me or olha-o, while Catalan uses fes-ho. Enclisis often interacts with prosody and syntactic constraints, and languages differ in how many clitics may be attached and in which verbal forms this is permitted.

See also: Clitic, Proclisis, Diphthong.