Details

General

Morphemic form: V{-gəkcai}V
New orthography: -gissaavoq
Old orthography: -gigssaivoĸ
Sources: [12, 14]
Combinations: Click here
Constituents: V{-gə}V, ?, V{ði}V,
Left sandhi:
Fusional,
Right sandhi:
Assibilation (t⇒s),
Inflection sandhi:
Default/none,
Stem type: Vowel stem
Diathesis: Subjective
Valency:
Increasing,
Monovalent,

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

According to the examples in Oqaatsit [14], the meaning of this affix is 'complains about Vb'ing'. It appears to only be used with stems describing a state of being, in an avalent sense, or with an unspecified Subject. For example:

The former Subject (i.e. an Actor) is removed, and instead, it is a new Subject, introduced by the affix, that is mentioned in the ending.

The affix is not mentioned in older dictionaries, nor in the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [16], so its origin is unclear. However, it does appear in Ordbogeeraq [12], which gives us the following spelling in the old orthography: -gigssaivoĸ. Given the meaning, this suggests that the initial morpheme is V{-gə}V, 'Agent considers Patient (too) Vb'ing'.

The middle part is unclear, but it seems to be a morpheme with an initial velar consonant, i.e. /k/ or /g/, followed by /ca/. This could look like the nominal future affix N{kcaq}N, which is also sometimes used on verbal stems, but this is entirely hypothetical. Thus, we record it here as an unknown morpheme.

The final part must then be a HTR-morpheme, here V{ði}V, which removes the Patient role (which also would have been equated with the Actor role of the underlying stem). This is seen as the final 'i' in the old-orthography spelling. Thus, we arrive at the following translation:

This should, however, only be considered a tentative translation, based on the above hypothesis regarding its construction.


Left sandhi:

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


Meanings and examples

Only with stems describing a state of being

  • akikigissaavoq, he complains about the low price [14]

    From akikippoq, 'it is cheap', i.e. 'it has a small (low) price'.

  • angigissaavoq, he complains about (its) being too big [14]

    From angivoq, 'it is big'.

  • ajorissaavoq, he complains about (its) being bad [14]

    From ajorpoq, 'it is bad'.

  • nillerissaavoq, he complains about the cold [14]

    From nillerpoq, 'it is cold'.

  • panerissaavoq, he thinks (it) is too dry [14]

    From panerpoq, 'it is dry'.