Details

General


Morphemic form: {əsi}N
New orthography: isi
Proto-eskimoic root: əciʀ
Morpheme type: Noun base
Right sandhi: None

Description


Form:

In modern day, there may be some confusion between {əcə}N (eye), {əci}N (drum skin) and {isə}N (boot tip), since all three forms have fallen together into just one, isi, in the New Orthography. You may therefore hear both e.g. isia and isaa for absolutive 3.sg/sg N{-a}. Some of the confusion was present already in the Old Orthography, where {əcə}N isse could be distinguished from ise, but the latter could be either {əsi}N or {isə}N, because the Old Orthography did not distinguish between /ə/ and true /i/. Only in the etymological orthography of the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary can we distinguish all three:


Noun stem


Stem type: Vowel-stem
Declension type: p-declined
Declension sandhi: Regular
ABS.sg ERG.sg ERG.pl ALL.sg ABS.3sg/sg Special forms
New orthography isi isip isit isimut isia
Phonemic notation əsi əsip əsit əsimut əsia

Meaning(s)


Meaning Notes
drum skin
violin string According to the dictionary by Schultz-Lorentzen (1958). The modern dictionary instead gives noqarti, agissap noqartaa for this meaning.