Why do we use “conmigo” but not “sinmigo”?

Question

In Spanish we typically use "conmigo" for "with me" but "sin mí" for "without me".

What are the origins of the word "conmigo"? How did it come to be preferred over "con mí"? Why do we continue to prefer "sin mí" over something like "sinmigo"?

Answer 1

Origin of conmigo

In Latin, "with me" was expressed mecum ("mí con"). Over time this word evolved phonologically to the point where the original "with" sense needed to be reinforced:¹

mecum→ micu(m) → migo → conmigo

Since the "-go" comes from cum ("con"), there was no parallel path for sine me ("sin mí") to evolve into something like *sinmigo.²

A similar process happened with cada quisque (lit. "cada cada uno").

Sinmigo in contemporary Spanish

However, given that conmigo is lexicalised in Spanish, it has been hypothesized that analogous forms *sinmigo, *sintigo etc may develop:

In conclusion, we might speculate on the future of the lexemes conmigo, contigo, consigo. Will they eventually follow connusco, convusco and regularize to con mí, con ti, con sí, or will the pressures of the language academies preserve them with the apparently meaningless morpheme -go? Or will this morpheme spread through lexical polarization, i.e., conmigo ~ *sin migo, contigo ~ *sin tigo, and then on to other syntagmas, *de migo, *de tigo, *a migo, *a tigo, etc.?¹⁰ Unfortunately for diachronists of the present, only time will tell.

• Excessive Analogical Change as an Impetus for Lexical Loss: Old Spanish connusco, convusco (1990)

And indeed this has been noted in some Argentinian and Mexican speakers (though this is heavily stigmatised):

Pues en México, se oye "sinmigo" y "sintigo" pero también se oye "haiga."

Es usado, pero no correcto.

This is not to be confused with its use ironically (e.g. "Sinmigo").

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1. This is known as a pleonasm (or datismo). This example can be considered a positive analogue of the Jespersen's Cycle.

2. Why Latin cum mē was replaced by the form mēcum has multiple proposed explanations.

• https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/RFRM/article/download/63507/4564456549390

Answer 2

The preposition "con" (with) comes from the Latin preposition "cum" and in that language when using pronouns, they would put "cum" at the end so instead of saying "cum me" they would say "mecum" (with me), tecum (with you), etc. Over time, people who spoke vulgar Latin started saying "cum mecum" to say "with me" which evolved to become "conmigo" in Spanish. We also have "contigo" (with you) and "consigo",although this last one is only used with the word "mismo" (self) in sentences like "él se enojó consigo mismo" (he got mad at himself), "ella estaba hablando consigo misma" (she was talking to herself).

On the other hand, "sin" comes from "sine" (without) and it was always put before the pronoun in Latin, "sine me" (without me), "sine te" (without you) and it became "sin mí", "sin ti". Although I've heard young teenagers saying "sinmigo" and "sintigo" a couple of times before but in a playful manner, completely aware that it was wrong.