Details

General

Morphemic form: N{-iqsiq}V
New orthography: -erserpoq
Old orthography: -erserpoĸ
Combinations: Click here
Constituents: N{-iq}V, ?,
Left sandhi:
Truncative,
/aq/ deleting,
Right sandhi:
Default/none,
Inflection sandhi:
Default/none,
Stem type: q-stem
Diathesis: Subjective
Valency change: None
Valency:
Monovalent,

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this affix is 'Actor has lost (his) N', where N is a noun for typical material possessions, e.g. a knife, a dog etc. Seemingly, the meaning of 'lost' can either be 'by accident' or 'has forgotten where he put it'. According to Kleinschmidt (1871), it may sometimes also be used with people in the sense of 'N has died', although some speakers may find this usage disagreeable, since the usual connotation of this affix is that of an item that has been lost or misplaced. He also mentions an ironic usage with people in the sense of 'a member of our group was lost' (e.g. because he fell behind).

The first component of this affix is N{-iq}V, 'deprive of N'. The second part, the /siq/ is of unknown origin. However, Schultz-Lorentzen mentions an example, umêrsiutaa, 'his lost boat', formed with this affix and N{-utə}N. The latter affix would usually not be able to remove a final /q/ from the stem, if the preceding vowel were /ə/. Hence, the last vowel in -erser- seems most likely to be a true /i/, and not /ə/.


Left sandhi:

Left sandhi is inherited from the left-most component, N{-iq}V. See this for details.


Meanings and examples

Either in the sense of 'by accident' or 'because it was forgotten'.

  • umiaarserpoq, he has lost his boat
    [4]

    From umiaq, '(women's) boat'. Surprisingly, this is not formed with deletion of the final /aq/, although aq-deletion appears in other examples.

  • saveerserpunga, I have lost my knife
    [4]

    From savik, 'knife'.

  • meqqutaarserpoq, he has lost his sowing needle
    [13]

    From meqqut, 'needle', which is a tə-stem, with /ə/ taking the sound [a] as usual.

  • Kaalerseraluaqaagut, we lost our Kaali, but... (we found him again later)
    [13]

    I.e., the guy named Kaali who is a member of our group.

  • ningaaverserpoq, he lost his brother-in-law
    [4]

    In the sense of 'he died'. From ningaaq, 'brother-in-law'. Note that not all speakers may find this usage acceptable.


References