A disfix is a subtractive morpheme, that is, a morpheme

Morpheme

In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...

 which manifests itself through elision

Elision

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...

 (the removal of segment

Segment (linguistics)

In linguistics , the term segment may be defined as "any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or auditorily, in the stream of speech."- Classifying speech units :...

s from a root or stem). Thus it can be seen as a kind of "anti-affix

Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...

". An example comes from Murle

Murle

The Murle are an ethnic group residing in Pibor County, Jonglei State, South Sudan as well as in Ethiopia. They have also been referred to in the literature as Beir by the Dinka or others who got information from them...

, an Eastern Sudanic language of southern Sudan:

/oɳiːt/ "rib" ↔ /oɳiː/ "ribs".

In French

From a more familiar language, some French plurals are derived from the singular, and many masculines from the feminine, by dropping the final consonant and making some generally predictable changes to the vowel:

Singular Plural trans. bœf bø cattle œf ø eɡɡs ɔs o bones

Feminine Masculine trans. blɑ̃ʃ blɑ̃ white fʀɛʃ fʀɛ fresh ɡʀos ɡʀo large fos fo wrong fʀɑ̃sɛz fʀɑ̃sɛ French ɑ̃ɡlɛz ɑ̃ɡlɛ English fʀwad fʀwa cold ɡʀɑ̃d ɡʀɑ̃ big pətit pəti small fʀit fʀi fried bɔn bɔ̃ ɡood

The singular–plural forms are irregular in French, but nouns and adjectives ending in certain consonants in the feminine regularly drop that consonant in the masculine (apart from environments of liaison

Liaison

Liaison in general means:# Communication between two or more groups.# Co-operation, working together.but may refer to:* Affair, an unfaithful or adulterous sexual relationship* Air Alliance, a Canadian airline whose call sign was "Liaison'...

).

Disfixation is uncommon, but is important in the Muskogean languages

Muskogean languages

Muskogean is an indigenous language family of the Southeastern United States. Though there is an ongoing debate concerning their interrelationships, the Muskogean languages are generally divided into two branches, Eastern Muskogean and Western Muskogean...

 of the southeastern United States.

Disfixes in Muskogean

In Muskogean, disfixes are used to derive pluractionality (repeated action, plural subjects or objects, or greater duration of a verb). In Alabama

Alabama language

Alabama is a Native American language, spoken by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas. It was once spoken by the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town of Oklahoma, but there are no more Alabama speakers in Oklahoma. It is a Muskogean language, and is believed to have been related to the Muklasa and...

, there are two principal forms of this morpheme:

• In most verbs, the last two segments are dropped from the penultimate syllable
  Syllable
  A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
  
   of the stem
  Word stem
  In linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...
  
  , which is the final syllable of the root. If the syllable has only two segments, it is elided altogether. For example:

balaaka "lies down", balka "lie down"

batatli "hits", batli "hits repeatedly"

cokkalika "enters", cokkaka "enter"

• In some verbs, the final consonant of the penult is dropped, but the preceding vowel lengthens to compensate:

salatli "slide", salaali "slide repeatedly"

noktiłifka "choke", noktiłiika "choke repeatedly"

Unlike the case in French, Muskogean disfixation is productive.