Details

General

Description and behaviour

Greenlandic verb stems normally express either a state of being or a single event. However, this affix is used to denote that an action is recurring/habitual, as opposed to occurring only once. It is often used to express a trait of the subject, such as e.g. 'a smoker' (one who habitually smokes), or 'a coffee-drinker' (one who habitually drinks coffee).

To illustrate the meaning of this affix, consider the question: 'Do you drink coffee?' If you are holding a cup of something in your hand, then I might just be inquiring about what you are presently drinking. In that case, I could pose the question as kaffisorpit? (without the use of V{ðaq}V). However, if I instead want to know whether you habitually drink coffee - i.e. if you are a coffee-drinker - rather than whether you are drinking it now specifically, then I would have to use this affix and instead ask kaffisortarpit? To which you can then reply (in the affirmative) aap, kaffisortarpunga, 'yes, I (habitually) drink coffee', or 'yes, I'm a coffee-drinker'.

However, note that the negation of V{ðaq}V is not done with V{ŋŋit}V, but instead is done by replacing V{ðaq}V with the special construction V{nəq ajuq}V. Negating this affix with V{ŋŋit}V will just mean that the verbal action is not habitual, but the subject might still Vb e.g. once, or maybe just occasionally. Thus, if you simply added V{ŋŋit}V and replied kaffisortanngilanga, then you might still be drinking coffee, but it is just not something you do habitually. To express that the subject never Vb, the 'pseudo'-affix V{nəq ajuq}V (never Vb) is used instead. Thus, if you want to express that you never drink coffee, you must replace V{ðaq}V with V{nəq ajuq}V, i.e.

• kaffisortarpunga ⇒ kaffisorneq ajorpunga

The affix is also always used on the main clause, whenever there is a subordinate clause in the iterative mood (i.e. to express 'whenever'). Consider the example

• ullaakkorsioraangama kaffisortarpunga, 'whenever I eat breakfast I drink coffee'

with the 1.sg iterative mood ending V{gaaŋama}. Here, the action in the main verb (kaffisortarpunga) must necessarily be habitual, because the meaning in the subordinate clause is 'whenever'.

If the time specification is given with a noun, rather than a verb in the iterative mood as in the examples above, then that noun will be in the vialis case, which is used for habitual/recurrent time specifications. For example, suppose I wanted to express that I (habitually) drink coffee in the morning. Then I would use the vialis case with ullaaq, 'morning', and with V{ðaq}V on the verb thus:

• ullaakkut kaffisortarpunga

Besides expressing habit, this affix can also express a recurring event, as in the following example:

• iluliarsuit aseroraangata assut mallilersarpoq, 'whenever the huge icebergs broke, there came huge waves'

with the 3.pl iterative mood ending V{gaaŋata}. This example illustrates the recurrent, rather than the habitual sense of this affix. It is not that the icebergs habitually break, but just that it is an even that occurs more than once, and therefore the main verb is marked with V{ðaq}V (mallilersarpoq). Note: The the form is -sar- here, rather than -tar-, because of the preceding 'true' /i/, which assibilates /t/ to /s/ (the t-to-s rule).

The affix also has a special meaning when used with the contemporative mood, when contemporative is used in an imperative sense, i.e. +tarluni, +tarlugu etc. Then this affix can be added to turn the command into a kind of reminder. It can also be used before ordinary imperative endings in the same sense, possibly followed by one of the other imperative modifiers like V{niaq}V in the same sense.

The right-sandhi of this affix is generally completely regular. However, there is one special case, where this affix is doubled, which happens when both of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The affix is joined onto a vowel-stem, which means that it takes the form -sar-.
2. The affix is followed by passive participle V{-ðaq}N, which then will take the form -gaq with deletion of /q/.

In this particular case, V{ðaq}V is usually duplicated, such that we get the form -sartagaq, i.e. the derivation looks as follows:

• V{ðaq}V + V{-ðaq}N ⇒ V{ðaq}V{ðaq}V{-ðaq}N ⇒ /ðaqðagaq/ ⇒ -sartagaq.

This can be seen in words such as the following:

• iisartagaq, 'a pill', literally 'something that is habitually swallowed', from iivaa, 'he swallows it'.
• pisartagaq, 'a subscription' (something one has subscribed to), literally 'something one habitually gets', from pivaa, 'he gets it'.

Meanings and examples

References

• [4] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
• [8] Christian Berthelsen, Birgitte Jakobsen, Robert Petersen, Inge Kleivan & Jørgen Rischel (1997): Oqaatsit.
• [10] Christian Berthelsen (1996): Kalaallisut Sungiusaatit.
• [11] Stig Bjørnum (2003): Grønlandsk Grammatik.