mesoclitics

Mesoclitics is a term used in linguistics to describe a category of clitics that attach within the interior of a host word, rather than at a word boundary. The concept is distinguished from proclitics, which attach to the left edge of a word, and enclitics, which attach to the right edge. Mesoclitics are typically bound morphemes that cannot occur independently and are observed as clitic-like elements positioned inside a stem or between morphemes within a single word.

In typology, mesoclitics are reported in a limited set of languages with rich clitic systems or complex internal morphology. They may insert between a stem and an affix, or occur between elements inside a larger word, creating internal, word-level cliticization patterns. Prosodically, mesoclitics can interact with stress, intonation, and phonotactics, and may influence or be influenced by vowel harmony or syllable structure.

Theoretical analyses of mesoclitics vary. Some researchers treat mesoclitics as genuine clitics with independent prosodic properties and a distinct clitic layer inside the word. Others interpret them as bound morphemes with clitic-like distribution or as infixes that occupy mid-word positions without forming a separate clitic tier. Because data on mesoclitics remain limited and cross-linguistic patterns are not yet fully established, their status and typology are subjects of ongoing debate.

See also: clitic, proclitic, enclitic, affix, morphology, prosody.