Details

General

Morphemic form: V{-kisaq}V
New orthography: -kisarit, -kisaruk
Old orthography: -kisarpoĸ
Combinations: Click here
Left sandhi:
Truncative,
Right sandhi:
Default/none,
Inflection sandhi:
Default/none,
Stem type: q-stem
Diathesis: None
Valency change: Preserving
Valency:
None,

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This affix is used to give negative/prohibitive commands: 'don't Vb!'. Given its meaning, this affix is only used in the imperative mood (or possibly the contemporative, when used as imperative).

The affix is not recorded in the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, so the etymology is unknown. This has no practical implications w.r.t. form and pronunciation, though, since we know from the spelling in the old orthography, that the 's' is and /s/ and not /c/. The 'i' could be either /i/ or /ə/, but as it occurs too far back in the stem, it cannot possibly be affected by any other morphemes affixed onto this morpheme, so it will always have the sound [i]. Hence, I record the form of this affix as straightforward V{-kisaq}V in the absence of any further information about its origin.


Meanings and examples

Negative command, only used in the imperative mood, or, possibly, the contemporative mood when used as imperative.

  • attukisaruk!, don't touch it!
    [13]

    From attorpaa, 'he touches it', with imperative 2sg/3sg V{-guk}.

  • unatakisakkit!, don't whip them!
    [13]

    Or: 'stop whipping them!', from unatarpaa, 'he flogs/whips him', with imperative 2sg/3pl V{kgət}.

  • qiakisarit!, stop crying!
    [4]

    From qiavoq, 'he is crying', with imperative 2sg V{-git}.


References