Details

General

Description and behaviour

This is apparently a non-productive affix with unclear meaning. According to the Comparative Eskimo dictionary, this affix consists of a morpheme {yu-}, which has no direct descendant in Kalaallisut, and {ŋiʀ-}, i.e. modern-day N{-iq}V, even though this morpheme normally attaches to noun stems. {yu-} means something like 'Subject is good at Vb'ing', or, according to Kleinschmidt (1871): 'Vb så let at den gør det ved hver given lejlighed', i.e. 'Subject Vb so easily that Subject does so at any given opportunity'. The meaning of the combined affix is then negative because if N{-iq}V, but different dictionaries give different definitions of its meaning:

• Comparative Eskimo Dictionary: 'Subject no longer Vb'
• Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): 'Subject never Vb', which is the same meaning as V{-juit}V, similarly formed from {yu-} but with V{-it}V instead.
• Kleinschmidt (1871): 'Subject vil for sit vedkommende ikke vide af at Vb'e', i.e. 'Subject will not acknowledge Vb'ing'.

Neither the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, nor Ordbogeeraq (1951) gives any translation examples, and Kleinschmidt (1871) only gives a single example, which does not seem to fit with his own proposed translation. Hence, we shall here assume Schultz-Lorentzen's (1958) translation is the best fitting.

According to the examples in Schultz-Lorentzen (1958) and Kleinschmidt (1871), it seems that the affix has (or had) a special left-sandhi rule, that caused the initial /j/ to alternate with /s/ on vowel stems. Thus:

• soraajuerpoq from soraarpoq, a consonant stem,
• qasusuerpoq from qasuvoq, a vowel stem.

The same is the case for V{-juit}V, since both have the morpheme {yu-} as their first component.

Meanings and examples

References

• [4] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
• [6] Jonathan Petersen (1967): Ordbogêraĸ.
• [13] Samuel Kleinschmidt (1871): Den grønlandske Ordbog.