Details

General

Morphemic form: N{(q)nisaq}N
New orthography: +nisaq, -rnisaq
Old orthography: -nisaĸ
Combinations: Click here
Constituents: ?, N{taq}N,
Variants: N{-lisaq}N,
Left sandhi:
Default,
Right sandhi:
Default/none,
Inflection sandhi:
Geminating,
Stem type: Weak q-stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This affix probably has limited combination potential. Its meaning is 'something from last N', where N is a noun indicating some time period (e.g. summer, yesterday, last year). Note also the variant form N{-lisaq}N with seemingly the same meaning.

The affix is mentioned in the CED under {nitaq}. They propose that this affix is derived from an irregular combination of the prepositional morpheme {nit} 'from', seen in the ablative case, and N{taq}N, 'something pertaining to N', with /i/ causing assibilation of /t/ to /s/. However, this hypothesis has two problems:

Thus, I record the first segment of this morpheme as unknown, but I assume that the vowel is a true /i/, and the second segment is N{taq}N, where the /i/ has caused assibilation. However, this should only be viewed as a hypothesis.

Lastly, all examples with this affix seem to end on /a/ or /aq/, so it may be that this affix is only used on stems of these forms.


Inflection sandhi:

It seems that this affix has gemination of /s/ to /tt/ or /tc/. For example, Oqaatsit (1997) has:

However, given the meaning, words derived with this affix seldom seem to be used in plural, and even less commonly in other cases than the absolutive.


Inflection

Declension pattern
Declension type: p-declined
Declension sandhi: Geminating
Gemination type: s⇒tc

Stem before consonant Stem before vowel Notable forms
New orthography +(r)nitsa +(r)nisa
+(r)nisaq
+(r)nitsap
+(r)nitsat
Phonemic orthography (q)nitca (q)nisa
(q)nisaq
(q)nitcap
(q)nitcat


Meanings and examples

Where N indicates a time period.

  • ippassarnisaq, something from yesterday
    [8]

    From ippassaq, 'yesterday'.

  • itsarnisaq, old-fashioned
    [8]

    From itsaq, 'in the old days', so literally 'something from the old days'. Oqaatsit (1997) also records the phrase ukiut itsarnitsat, 'in ancient times', which shows that the plural form geminates. From this and N{(q)cuaq}N we also have itsarsuarnisaq, 'pre-historic'.

  • siorn(g)anisaq, something from last year
    [4]

    From siorn(g)a, 'last year'. Note that this noun is actually declined (absolutive 3sg/sg possessive of siuneq). This is either an irregular formation, because the word siorna is lexicalised in this sense and therefore treated as a noun stem, or it is because the initial /ni/ actually derives from a case ending. Normally, the ablative 3sg/sg case ending is N{-anət}, but there are some examples where a (q) is injected, when prepositional morphemes are added on top of each other, or added irregularly (e.g. ullormut vs. the regular ullumut). However, it is unclear whether this is the reason here.


References