Details

General

Description and behaviour

This is a non-productive affix found in some lexicalised words. According to Kleinschmidt [9] and the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [16], the meaning is: 'Subject is in a state of having Vb'ed'. It is similar to the meaning of a collection of other affixes: V{-(u)ma}V, V{-ŋa}V, and V{ŋqa}V. Only the last of these is used productively nowadays.

Based on the examples in Kleinschmidt [9] and Ordbogeeraq [16], the affix appears to be truncative on t-stems. We have:

• _kipisavoĸ from kipípoĸ,
• ĸîsavoĸ from ĸĩpoĸ,

In both cases indicating that the base is a t-stem. There are no examples of other consonant stem types, but the derived affix V{saaq}V seems to be additive on k-stems. We have:

• avalagsârpoĸ from avalagpoĸ,
• majoragsârpoĸ from majoragpoĸ,
• pigsigsârpoĸ from pigsigpoĸ,

thus indicating that the stem-final /k/ is not deleted. Additionally, we have:

• íkardlisârpoĸ from _íkardlípoĸ

again confirming the truncativity on t-stems. Its behaviour on q-stems is unknown, since there are no examples.

Thus, we record the affix here as t-truncative, i.e. generally additive, but truncative on t-stems. However, this should only be regarded as an hypothesis, since there are too few examples to verify this behaviour.

Meanings and examples