Details
General
| Morphemic form: | V{-uq}V |
| New orthography: | -orpoq |
| Old orthography: | -orpoĸ, -gorpoĸ, -rorpoĸ, ^-rpâ |
| Combinations: | Click here |
| Left sandhi: | Truncative,
Irregular,
|
| 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 is an old, non-productive morpheme, found in a number of lexicalisations. According to Kleinschmidt (1871), it denotes a prolonged state of repetitions with short intervals.
Left sandhi:
The affix is normally truncative and will inject an epenthetic /j/ when required by phonotactics. However, both Kleinschmidt (1871) and Schultz-Lorentzen (1958) mention examples, where it seemingly has injected /g/ rather than /j/. For example, taiorpâ (taajorpaa) or taigorpâ (taagorpaa), both from taivâ (taavaa). There are even examples where an /r/ appears instead, such as saverorpâ from savípâ, which is completely unexplained.
As the affix is non-productive today, we shall not attempt to account for these phenomena in lexicalised words, but merely note that there are some unexplained irregularities in how this affix historically has been joined onto some stems.
Meanings and examples
- taajorpaa, he mentions it several times
[13]
From taavaa, 'he mentions it'.
- erniorpoq, it breeds
[4]
From ernivoq, 'it gives birth', so literally 'it gives birth several times' (one after the other).
- saverorpaa, he whittles it (here and there); he whittles it smooth
[4]
From savippaa, 'he whittles it', cf. savik, 'knife'.
References
- [1] Michael Fortescue, Steven Jacobson, Lawrence Kaplan (2010): Comparative Eskimo Dictionary (2ED).
- [4] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
- [13] Samuel Kleinschmidt (1871): Den grønlandske Ordbog.