Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This is an old, mostly non-productive, and highly irregular affix. The meaning is to indicate a habitual/recurrent/repeated action, usually translated into Danish as 'plejer', although this does not quite match the meaning of this affix. It simply denotes that the action happens several times, for example as a habit, or as a recurring pattern. Nowadays, this meaning is normally conveyed by the regular affix V{ðaq}V instead, but in older language V{ðaq}V denoted a different kind of repetition, and the present affix was specifically used to convey the 'habitual' sense. Therefore, the present affix is also considered to be more 'literary style' than V{ðaq}V by some speakers.

Etymology

The irregular behaviour of this affix seems to be caused by suppletion with another (non-productive) morpheme, {ɣaa-} or {ɣai-}, which supposedly is also the source of the iterative mood marker {gaaŋa}, {gaaŋ}. This mood marker is formed through combination of the present affix with the causative mood marker {ga} (historically changing the mood marker {ga} to {ŋa}, which used to be standard for ə-stems, and dropping /a/ before 3rd person endings {at}, {ata}, where instead today the special 3rd person mood marker {(m)m} is used). As further indicated in the inflection sandhi section, the suppletive form may also cause changes in some of the other moods, in particular the contemporative mood, where the mood marker {(l)lu} changes to {lu}, as with other ə-stems with ə-contractive endings. This further supports the view that the suppletive morpheme really is {ɣaə-}, i.e. /gaə/, rather than {ɣaa-} as the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [21] proposes. In the present dictionary, we shall therefore treat the suppletive form as /gaə/.

Left sandhi:

The initial /ð/ may optionally drop following a q-stem, with /q/ then becoming /r/; i.e., the affix may optionally behave as /garə/ on q-stems, such that /qg/ merge to /r/. This is presumably due to suppletion with another historic morpheme {ɣaa-}, {ɣai-} (or {ɣaə-}, cf. the etymology description), possibly in combination with habitual {aʀ-}, i.e. V{-aq}V. The general suppletive form is /garə/, but it may in certain cases also appear as /-arə/ or /gai/. Thus with e.g. oqarpoq, combination with this affix can yield either of the following:

• oqartaraaq, regular, from V{ðarə}V,
• oqararaaq, irregular, from V{garə}V.

Kleinschmidt [13] offers a longer description of when this alternative form is used. The affix is likely not used in accordance with (all of) these rules today, but we shall give them here anyway (with an adaptation to the terminology used in the present dictionary), since they may be encountered in older texts:

• On q-stems, it will behave as V{garə}V, e.g. {isəq}V, iserpoq ⇒ iseraraaq.
• On k-stems, it may behave as either V{ðarə}V, or, more rarely, as V{garə}V or V{-garə}V, e.g. {uqaluk}V, oqaluppoq ⇒ oqaluttaraaq, or oqalukkaraaq or oqalugaraaq.
• On t-stems (likely including t(ə)-stems), it behaves as V{ðarə}V, e.g. {əgət}V, igippaa ⇒ igittaraa.
• On vowel stems, it behaves as V{ðarə}V, e.g. {sana}V, sanavaa ⇒ sanasaraa and {əcəgə}V, isigaa ⇒ isigisaraa.

Thus, according to Kleinschmidt, it seems to behave like the passive participle V{-ðaq}N followed by N{-gə}V. There may be some truth to this, since V{-ðaq}N also has highly irregular behaviour due to suppletion with another morpheme {gaq} and possibly also {-aq}. However, it does not quite hold according to the modern rules for the behaviour of V{-ðaq}N, so this may, at best, be seen as another indicator of the irregularity of this affix.

Kleinschmidt [13] and Schultz-Lorentzen [16] also mention two special combinations, where {(ð)arə} seems to have fused with the affixes V{llaq}V and V{naq}V. Here, the affix appears as V{-arə}V with drop of /ð/, and in this case as a truncative affix (as all vowel-initial affixes normally are). Thus, this form is irregular, but the formation itself is regular. Thus:

• V{llaq}V + V{-arə}V ⇒ /llaarə/, new orthography: -llaaraaq, old orthography: -tdlâraoĸ, see V{llaarə}V.
• V{naq}V + V{-arə}V ⇒ /naarə/, new orthography: +naaraaq, old orthography -nâraoĸ, see V{naarə}V and V{nallaarə}V.

These combinations are also highly irregular, with the /aa/ sometimes being just /a/ with certain mood endings, presumably also due to suppletion. We shall not try to account for that here, but instead record these combinations separately.

Right sandhi:

The affix will appear as the last in the stem, except possibly followed by negation V{ŋŋit}V. In that case, one of the suppletive forms can be used. According to Kleinschmidt [13], there are three possibilities for this combination:

• /ðarəŋŋit/, which is the completely regular combination, e.g. oqartarinngilaq (old orthography: oĸartaríngilaĸ) from oqarpoq.
• /garaəŋŋit/, which seems to be formed with suppletion from {ɣai-} (or {ɣaə-} cf. the etymological description), e.g. oqararaanngilaq (old orthography: oĸararáingilaĸ). Presumably, this form would also alternate with initial /ð/ according to the left-sandhi rules described above, so we could also have /ðaraəŋŋit/.
• /gaəŋŋit/, which is only using the suppletive form from {ɣaə-}, i.e. /gaə/. According to Kleinschmidt, this form will often be used, if the stem ends in 'ar', i.e. /aq/ in our notation. Thus for example oqaraanngilaq (old orthography: oĸaráingilaĸ).

We also record this combination separately, see V{ðarəŋŋit}V.

Inflection sandhi:

Due to suppletion and the fact that it is a ə-stem, this affix has several complications w.r.t. inflection sandhi:

• The affix has ə-contractive endings in the indicative and interrogative moods: i.e. /v/ is deleted from the mood markers {vu}, {va}, {vi}. Thus we get forms like /(ð)arəa/, /(ð)arəunga/, /(ð)arəuq/, /(ð)arəut/ etc., as is standard for ə-stems.

• In the contemporative mood, and in intransitive participial, and before the intransitive participle, the affix appears as {(ð)araə}, i.e. presumably a combination of {ðaʀ-} or {aʀ-} and {ɣai-} (or {ɣaə-}). Furthermore, the contemporative mood marker is {lu}, as with other ə-contractive stems. Thus we get forms like /(ð)araəluŋa/, /(ð)araəluni/, /(ð)araəcuŋa/, /(ð)araəcuq/ etc.

• In the causative mood, /g/ is nasalised to /ŋ/ in the mood marker {ga}, and with 3rd person endings, where we normally have the special 3rd person marker {(m)m}, we instead simply have {ŋ}. Thus we get the forms /(ð)arəŋama/, /(ð)arəŋavət/ and 3.sg /(ð)arəŋat/ etc., similar to the iterative mood.

Nowadays, all of the above, with the exception of ə-contraction may be used irregularly, or not at all. Hence, e.g. both -taraluni (regular, with ə-contraction) and -taraaluni (irregular, with suppletion) may be encountered. Consider the following examples:

• nâgdliugtaringama (new orthography: naalliuttaringama), with changing {ga} to {ŋa} in the causative mood.
• autdlararaissoĸ (new orthography: aallararaasoq), dropping /ð/ after /q/ and changing to the form /arai/ (suppletion from {aʀ-} + {ɣai-}).
• angalavoĸ oĸalugtuararailune (new orthography angalavoq oqaluttuararaaluni), dropping /ð/ after /q/ and changing to the form /arai/ (suppletion from {aʀ-} + {ɣai-}).

Meanings and examples

Tags

• Stem categorisation / Non-productive morpheme