Terminology

The entries in this dictionary contain quite a bit of 'Grammaric' technical jargon. The meaning and significance of this is explained in detail in the AITWG, but this page provides a brief overview for quick referencing.

Sandhi

Sandhi means 'joining' in Grammaric and is a collection of phenomenae that occur whenever two morphemes are joined together. In this dictionary, we distinguish between left sandhi and right sandhi:

• Left sandhi phenomenae apply to affixes (and in principle also endings), because both are joined onto stems on their left-hand side.
• Right sandhi phenomenae apply to stems (i.e. both bases and affixes but not endings), because stems may have morphemes joined onto them on their right-hand side. For right sandhi, we furthermore need to distinguish between declension (resp. conjugation) sandhi, which only occur when the stem is combined with an ending, and combination sandhi which also may occur when another affix is added to the stem.

Left sandhi

These are the types of left sandhi:

• Default: The affix is additive, epenthetic or phonotactically truncative; its sandhi-behaviour can be inferred directly from the morphemic form. As per AITWG-notation:
  • Additive morphemes have no special symbol, e.g. V{ðuq}N. They join onto the final phoneme of the preceeding stem, regardless of whether it is a consonant or a vowel.
  • Epenthetic morphemes begin with a consonant in parentheses, e.g. N{(l)liq}N. They always join onto the final consonant of the preceeding stem, but if the stem ends in a vowel, they inject the consonant in parentheses.
  • Phonotactically truncative morphemes also have no special symbol, but they begin with a double consonant, e.g. V{ssa}V. They must therefore necessarily join onto the final vowel of the preceeding stem, and therefore necessarily remove a final consonant, if the stem ends in a consonant.
• Special: The affix has irregular/idiosyncratic sandhi rules (explained in the description). For example V{-ðaq}N, which alternates with -gaq when the stem ends in /q/.
• Truncative: The affix is sandhi-truncative. Truncative morphemes begin with a 'minus' (hyphen), e.g. N{-u}V. They join onto the final vowel of the preceeding stem; i.e. if the stem ends in a consonant, it is removed.
• Replacive: The affix is sandhi-truncative and may replace /təl/ with /s/. For example, N{-liq}V is replacive, so {aullaitə}N{-liq}V{vaa} ⇒ aallaaserpaa. Replacive affixes may also trigger aq-drop and gemination, if the stem is aq-dropping (combination sandhi), i.e. /CVaql/ becomes /CC/. For example {miiraq}N{-lirə}V{vuq} ⇒ meeqqerivoq
• Fusional: The affix is truncative, except on q-stems where /qg/ merge to /r/ (only relevant to g-initial affixes). For example, V{-gə}V.
• t-truncative: The affix is additive, except on old t-stems and t(ə)-stems, where it may be truncative, thus removing /t/ or revealing /ə/. For example V{tət}V.
• Geminating: The affix is truncative and may cause gemination of a single consonant in the previous stem. For example V{-vik}N, which on the stem napparsima- yields napparsimmavik, or with iga- yields iggavik.
• j/t-alternating: The affix is additive, and /j/ becomes /t/ on consonant stems. For example V{juaq}V, which on a consonant stem such as seqinner- yields seqinnertuarpoq.
• ə-eliding: The affix may elide a final /ə/ and attach directly to the preceeding consonant. For example V{nəq}N, which on e.g. {aŋə}V yields /aŋnəq/ ⇒ anneq.

Declension sandhi (right sandhi)

These are the types of right sandhi phenomenae that may occur in noun stems before endings:

• Irregular: Adding endings may cause some completely irregular/idiosyncratic changes in the stem (explained in the description).
• Regular: Adding endings will not cause changes in the stem, apart from what is required by the left-sandhi of the ending.
• Gemination: Consonant-initial endings will cause gemination (sound doubling) in the stem.
• Metathesis: Vowel-initial endings will cause metathesis (sound shifts) in the stem: A /ə/ is deleted, and the final consonant moves to the left.
• Weakening: Vowel-initial endings cannot remove the final consonant, even if they are truncative. Instead this consonant is weakened (to /r/ if it is /q/, or to /ŋ/ if it is /k/), and the ending joins onto the weakened consonant.
• Limited metathesis: Metathesis, but only in unmarked ergative singular and plural, and usually with ip-declension rather than the usual up-declension.

Conjugation sandhi (right sandhi)

These are the types of right sandhi phenomenae that may occur in verb stems before endings:

• Irregular: Adding endings may cause some completely irregular/idiosyncratic changes in the stem (explained in the description).
• Regular: Adding endings will not cause changes in the stem, apart from what is required by the left-sandhi of the ending.
• ə-contraction: The stem has contracted endings due to the final /ə/. This affects the indicative, interrogative, imperative and contemporative moods.
• tc-exception: The combination /tð/ may yield [tc] instead of [tt], especially with intransitive participial mood and intransitive participle (-tsoq).

Combination sandhi (right sandhi)

The right-sandhi phenomena that can occur, when another morpheme (usually an affix) joins onto the stem are:

• aq-dropping: If the stem ends in /aq/, this /aq/ may be deleted when a vowel-initial affix, or a vowel-initial ending, or an affix with left-sandhi replacivity joins onto it. It happens in particular with all vowel-initial endings and the affix N{-u}V with the noun stems N{(q)cuaq}N, N{ŋŋuaq}N and V{galuaq}N, but there are also other, less regular cases. With verb stems it may in particular happen before the affixes V{-ut(ə)}V and V{-utə}N.
• Assibilation: This denotes that the stem contains a true /i/ as its last vowel, which may cause a /t/ (either the stem-final consonant, or the initial consonant in the affix/ending) to become /s/ by the t⇒s-rule. Not all stems with true /i/ do this regularly anymore (although they may do it), but some do it regularly.

Stem type and declination

Noun stems can be divided into two broad categories, depending on the form of ending, they take in ergative singular, plural and absolutive 2.sg/sg (which is always equal to the plural ending).

• The p-declined stems take N{p} in ergative singular, and N{t} in plural (and ABS 2.sg/sg).
• The up-declined stems take N{up} in ergative singular, and N{it} in plural (and ABS 2.sg/sg)

Each of these broad categories can then be further subdivided into a number of different stem types, which determine whether the aforementioned endings are truncative (will remove a stem-final consonant) or additive (will join onto a stem-final consonant).

Note: A small handful of stems take N{-ip} and N{-it}, instead of the usual N{-up}, and also display a limited form of metathesis (only with these two endings). These stems were presumably originally up-declined, and the present declension pattern seems to be a confusion of ordinary metathesis and gemination.

'Weak' stems

Weak stems are characterised by ether ending in a vowel; or a consonant which is automatically dropped before all consonant-initial endings, regardless of whether the ending itself is additive or truncative. These stems are all p-declined. These are also the types of stems that may display gemination (except tə-stems).

• Vowel stems (p-declined) end in one of the vowels /aiu/. Note that some of these may display gemination (as if they were weak q-stems).
• ə-stems (p-declined) are distinguished from the other vowel stems (and also from tə-stems), because the final vowel is an /ə/, which is written as "i", but which changes to [a] when followed by a vowel-initial ending (the ə-rule).
• t-stems (p-declined) end in /tə/, but /ə/ is not written, unless another morpheme is joined onto it. In this case it becomes [i] or [a], according to the ə-rule.
• Weak q-stems (p-declined) end in /q/, but the stem automatically drops this /q/ before all consonant-initial endings, except ABS 1.sg/sg N{ga}. Thus, all consonant-initial endings will behave as if they are truncative, but this is really a feature of the stem, and not of the endings themselves. This is the most common type.
• Weak k-stems (p-declined) are k-stems that behave like weak q-stems, in the sense that they also drop their stem-final consonant before all consonant-initial endings. These are quite rare.

'Middle' stems

The 'middle' group of stems are consonant stems, where the stem-final consonant is retained before consonant-initial endings, but removed by vowel-initial endings. These are thus the most 'regular' stem types, because they behave completely in accordance with the left-sandhi of the endings. This is the most common pattern for k-stems, but quite rare for q-stems. These stems are all up-declined.

• Regular k-stems (up-declined) is the most common type of k-stems: All vowel-initial endings are truncative, including N{-up} and N{-it} and thus remove /k/, but consonant-initial endings join onto /k/, except ABS 1.sg/sg N{ga}, which still removes /k/, because this morpheme is qg-fusional.
• Regular q-stems (up-declined) is a small group of q-stems that behave like k-stems: They take N{-up} and N{-it}, and all vowel-initial endings are truncative, whilst consonant-initial endings join onto /q/. Notable common examples are the affixes N{(q)cuaq}N and N{(l)liq}N.

'Strong' stems

The stong stems never lose their stem-final consonant before vowel-initial endings (which are normally always truncative). Instead, the final consonant is either weakened, or the stem displays metathesis. These stems can usually be recognised by the fact that they (almost always) end in /əq/ (or /ək/ in the case of k-stems). These stems are also all up-declined. However, consonant-initial endings will join onto the stem according to their own, usual left-sandhi.

• Strong q-stems (up-declined) will weaken /q/ to /r/ before any vowel-initial ending: Thus e.g. {iqnəq}N{-a} ⇒ ernera. However, truncative, consonant-initial endings can remove /q/ as usual: thus {iqnəq}N{-ma} ⇒ ernima. Some of these stems may alternatively display metathesis instead of weakening as a means to retain the final consonant. For example {atəq}N{-a} ⇒ /atqa/ ⇒ aqqa.
• Strong k-stems (up-declined) are quite rare. They will usually weaken their final /k/ by nasalising it to /ŋ/ before vowel-initial endings: Thus e.g. {nalək}N{-a} ⇒ nalinga. Alternatively, they may display metathesis like the strong q-stems above.

Valency

The valency of a verbal stem denotes the number of logical (semantic) roles in the verbal action. This is an inherent feature of the stem (determined by its meaning). Greenlandic verbs can have one of has five different valencies, from valency 0 (avalent) to valency 4 (quadrovalent).

• Avalent stems can only take endings intransitive endings, and usually only 3.sg (or 4.sg) with no explicit specification of the subject. The person marker in the ending denotes a dummy subject 'it', such as e.g. siallerpoq, 'it rains'.
• Monovalent stems can only take intransitive endings, but with any person.
• Divalent stems will normally require a transitive ending. If it is given an intransitive ending, without an intervening HTR-morpheme, it may change the diathesis/voice of the verb, so it may become reflexive or passive.
• Trivalent and quatrovalent stems are like divalent stems in that they also usually take transitive endings, which indicate the Agent and Patient roles of the verbal action. The other logical roles are not denoted explicitly in the verb ending, but they may optionally be specified with a noun in the allative an/or instrumental case.
• Some affixes can increase the valency of the stem they are affixed to. These are marked as valency-increasing. Thus, they can turn a monovalent stem into a divalent stem, etc.
• Some affixes will reduce the valency of the stem they are affixed to, and they are therefore marked as valency-reducing. Thus, they can e.g. make a divalent stem monovalent (usually changing the meaning to passive), or even in some cases avalent.
• Most affixes do not affect the valency of the stem. Hence, they are marked as valency-preserving.

Diathesis

The diathesis (or 'voice') of a verb stem denotes how the logical roles in the verbal action (i.e. Actor, Agent, Patient) are mapped to the grammatical functions in the sentence (i.e. Subject and Object). This is especially relevant in the case of divalent stems, because it signifies how the meaning of the stem will change, if it is given an intransitive ending without an intervening HTR-morpheme. We have the following classifications:

• Subjective: The stem is avalent or monovalent. It has only a single, logical role, Actor, so the stem can only be used with intransitive endings.
• Agentive: The stem is divalent and non-patient-preserving (NPP). It can be used with intransitive endings, without an intervening HTR-morpheme, without altering the diathesis, because the Agent role is preserved and mapped to the Subject of the sentence. Thus, the diathesis/voice remains active.
• Patientive: The stem is divalent and non-agent preserving (NAP). When used with intransitive endings without an intervening HTR-morpheme, the Patient role is preserved and mapped to the Subject of the sentence. Thus, the diathesis/voice becomes passive.
• Reflexive/reciprocal: The stem is divalent and both-preserving (BPP). When used with intransitive endings without an intervening HTR-morpheme, both the Agent and Patient roles are preserved, and are both mapped to the Subject of the sentence. Thus, the diathesis/voice becomes reflexive (Subject Vb himself); or, if used with a plural ending, reciprocal (Subjects Vb each other). The reflexive meaning is usually further emphasised by using the reflexive pronoun imminut.
• Unaltered: Most affixes do not affect the diathesis or number of logical roles in the verbal action, so attaching any of these affixes will leave the diathesis unaltered, which is indicated by this flassification.

HTR-morphemes

If a stem is patient-preserving (PP), i.e. either patientive or reflexive/reciprocal, it requires a HTR-morpheme ('half-transitive' morpheme) to use the stem with an intransitive ending without altering the diathesis/voice. There are three different HTR-morphemes, and one of them furthermore has three slightly different forms; and each stem has a preference for just one of these HTR-morphemes. These are the HTR-morphemes:

• {ði} (historic form). This morpheme is the preferred HTR-morpheme on consonant stems. It has three different forms today:
  • On true t-stems this morpheme usually takes the form {ci}, i.e. the final /t/ is not assimilated, but instead becomes ts. For example {tuqut}{ði}V ⇒ /tuqutci/ ⇒ toqutsi-.
  • On ut(ə)-stems it also appears as {ci}, but here /ə/ is elided and /t/ is assimilated. Thus V{-ut(ə)}{ði}V ⇒ /-utci/ ⇒ -ussi-.
  • On k-stems it also appears as {ci}, and /c/ assimilates /k/ as usual.
  • On q-stems this morpheme appears as {-i}, thus deleting the final /q/. Thus e.g. {atuq}{-i}V ⇒ atui-.
  • However, if the q-stem ends in /əq/ or /VVq/, where /VV/ is any long vowel, the morpheme cannot remove the final /q/, which instead is weakened to /r/. Thus e.g. N{təq}{-i}V ⇒ -teri-.
• {nnək}. This morpheme is used on all stems formed with V{-gə}V or N{gə}V, and also on other vowel stems.
• {(k)liq} is a rare HTR-morpheme that is only used on a few stems. According to the CED, the historic form is {kɬiq}, possibly derived from {kaʀ} (passive participle) and {liʀ} (provide with), with /aq/ drop.

As indicated above, there are some rules-of-thumb for determining the HTR-morpheme based on the stem type, but they are not without exceptions, so the preferred HTR-morpheme is listed explicitly in the Verb stem section. Affixing the HTR-morpheme to the stem yields its HTR-stem, which is also indicated in the Verb stem section.