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be- (prepositional)
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be- /bə/ is a Germanic unstressed element found in adverbs and prepositions like beneden down and (with schwa deletion) binnen inside and buiten out, outside. The element historically goes back to a prefix which will not be recognized by many language users nowadays; various scholars, however, maintain that this be- is a prefix in current Dutch.

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The element be- /bə/ goes back to a Proto-Germanic prefix *bi- that is related to the preposition bij at, near (cf. English by, German bei). It is found in complex prepositions and adverbs such as beneden down, boven up, upside and binnen inside(De Haas and Trommelen 1993: 52). The original stem in beneden is no longer used in Dutch, binnen derives from in in, inside.

extra

The -en part in binnen inside (<in) and buiten out, outside (< uit) derives from a directional suffix *ana (see Etymologiebank). benevens on top of that and dialectal bachten behind, beyond are derived by means of the same prefix and suffix combination (Etymologiebank). The WNT hypothesizes that bezijden alongside also contains the same prefix historically, but an inflected form of the noun zijde side rather than a combination of a preposition and a suffix; De Haas and Trommelen (1993: 52) have their doubts. The morphological and etymological status of cases such as benoorden north of (< noord north) is unclear.

Zwart (2011: 102-103), on the other hand, qualifies be- in bezijden alongside, benoorden north of, as well as in binnen inside, buiten outside and boven above, upstairs as an applicative prefix. In his view, this would be the same prefix as the one occuring in verbs such as be-zett-en APPL-put-INF to occupy, as in het strand bezetten met palen stick poles in the beach.

References
  • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
  • Haas, Wim de & Trommelen, Mieke1993Morfologisch handboek van het Nederlands. Een overzicht van de woordvormingSDU Uitgeverij
  • Zwart, Jan-Wouter2011The syntax of DutchCambridgeCambridge University Press
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