Details
General
| Morphemic form: | N{-utə}N |
| New orthography: | -ut, -at, +jut |
| Old orthography: | -ut |
| Combinations: | Click here |
| Left sandhi: | Truncative,
|
| Right sandhi: | Default/none,
|
| Inflection sandhi: | Default/none,
|
| Stem type: | tə-stem |
Description and behaviour
Form and usage:
This affix is used to denote so-called 'alienable possession'. When used on a noun stem, it marks that the noun is an owned item. It is often, but not always, followed by a possessive ending denoting the owner of the noun, or by N{-qaq}V or N{-gə}V.
It can be difficult to decide whether N{-utə}N is required or not. In general, it may be easier to list when it should not be used:
- If the noun stem is a person: e.g. ilinniartitsisorput, 'our teacher'. However, there are some special, lexicalised examples, where N{-utə}N is used with person, e.g. angutaat, 'boyfriend', and arnaat, 'girlfriend'.
- If the noun stem is part of the owner's body, or produced by the possessor's body: e.g. manneqarpoq, 'she has eggs (that she has laid)', in contrast to manniuteqarpoq, 'she has eggs (that she e.g. has bought)'. By extension, this is also used with items produced by the possessor: e.g. atuagaa, 'his book' (a book written by him) vs. atuagaataa, 'his book' (a book that he owns).
- If the noun stem is part of the owner's household: this includes illu, 'house'; 'biilit', 'car'; and also qimmeq, 'dog', since dogs traditionally were important in the household. Thus, you always say e.g. illoqarpunga, biileqarpunga, qimmeqarpunga without using N{-utə}N. Nowadays it may depend on the speaker's preference whether other pets, such as cats, should also be counted as part of the household. Thus you may encounter either qitsoqarpunga or qitsuuteqarpunga for 'I have a cat'.
Inflection
Declension pattern
| Declension type: | p-declined |
| Declension sandhi: | Default/none |
| Stem before consonant | Stem before vowel | Notable forms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New orthography | -uti | -uta |
-ut
-utip
-utit
|
| Phonemic orthography | -utə | -utə |
-utə
-utəp
-utət
|
Meanings and examples
This affix is generally mandatory before possessive endings, if the owned noun is not part of the body or household of the possessor, or a person.
- savaat, an owned sheep
From sava, 'sheep'; i.e., a sheep owned by someone (in contrast to a wild sheep)
- atuagaataa, his (owned) book
From atuagaq + N{-utə}N + 3.sg/sg possessive ending N{-a}; i.e. a book that he owns. Compare atuagaa without N{-utə}N which also means 'his book', but now in the sense of 'a book written by him'.
- angutaataa, her boyfriend
From {aŋutə}N, 'man' + N{-utə}N + 3.sg possessive ending N{-a}. Here N{-utə}N is required, since angutaa instead means 'her father'.
- arnaataa, his girlfriend
From {aqnaq}N, 'woman' + N{-utə}N + 3.sg possessive ending N{-a}. Here N{-utə}N is required, since arnaa instead means 'his mother'.
References
- [4] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
- [8] Christian Berthelsen, Birgitte Jakobsen, Robert Petersen, Inge Kleivan & Jørgen Rischel (1997): Oqaatsit.