Category talk:Latin terms interfixed with -i-

RFD discussion: March 2019–January 2023
This isn't actually an interfix, but it's just the form that the thematic vowel of the preceding noun takes in a compound. i is the regular outcome of various Old Latin vowels in most positions. —Rua (mew) 22:22, 8 March 2019 (UTC)
 * There actually are a few arguments for -i- being an interfix in Latin compound words. The many examples of words with short a e o u in non-final open syllables clearly show that weakening of short vowels to -i- was not a regular phonological process in Classical Latin. And it seems unlikely that Classical Latin had a productive morphophonological rule of vowel reduction to -i- either: in "Latin vowel reduction and the reality of phonological rules", Tore Janson says that Latin adjective and verb roots with short -o- never have alternative forms with -i- in compound words (e.g. potens forms impotens, not *impitens) (p. 5). Also, Old Latin vowel reduction didn't result in -i- in closed syllables or before r, and usually not before clusters of an obstruent and r, but linking -i- can be found in these contexts (compare lectisternium, quadriremis, herbigradus to incestus, onero, perpetro). In compounds, -i- was used even after consonant stems (such as dracōn- in the category's list of words).--Urszag (talk) 01:19, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

RFD-kept, nobody other than the nominator arguing for deletion in almost 4 years. This, that and the other (talk) 03:31, 25 January 2023 (UTC)