Details

General

Description and behaviour

This affix is mentioned in two places:

• Fortescue (1983), who gives its meaning as 'Subject is in the middle of Vb'ing',
• Petersen (1951), who does not define a meaning but gives the examples ordlerssarâ, perssarâ. The latter is a lexicalised word meaning 'he works persistently on it', presumably from the dummy base {pi}V, 'Agent Vb Patient', giving the pure meaning of the affix itself.

It is not mentioned in the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, so the origin is unclear. One possible explanation could be that it is formed from V{ðarə}V, which is an old, irregular and mostly non-productive variant of V{ðaq}V, due to a misunderstanding of the form/behaviour of this affix, (maybe caused by its irregular behaviour), treating it instead as being -ssarâ, -ssaraoĸ, rather than with alternating 't' and 'ss'. However, this hypothesis offers no explanation for the origin of the epenthetic /q/.

Based on the above, the meaning thus appears to be either 'in the middle of' or 'persistently'. With no other usage examples, it is difficult to determine. Furthermore, the affix does not appear to be used productively. However, it does appear to be used productively in combination with V{niaq}V, 'intend', i.e. the affix V{niaqcare}V, which means 'Subject tries to Vb (despite difficulty)'. This meaning seems to fit better with 'persistently' than 'in the middle of'.

Meanings and examples

References

• [2] Michael Fortescue (1983): A comparative manual of affixes for the Inuit dialects of Greenland, Canada and Alaska.
• [6] Jonathan Petersen (1967): Ordbogêraĸ.