Details
General
| Morphemic form: | {<niisuraq}N |
| New orthography: | niisoraq, niisoqqat |
| Old orthography: | nîsoraĸ, nîsorĸat |
| Sources: | [13, 17, 8, 16] |
| Combinations: | View list |
| Right sandhi: | Default/none |
| Inflection sandhi: | Geminating |
| Stem type(s): | Weak q-stem |
Description and behaviour
Form and usage:
According to Kleinschmidt [13], this stem denotes 'the cavity of the neck above the breast bone'. It is recorded in the older dictionaries [13, 17, 16], but not in Oqaatsit [19] or newer dictionaries, thus suggesting that the word maybe is not used nowadays.
Form and etymology:
According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [21], the historic reconstructed form of this stem is {nəɣituqaʀ-}, actually a verb stem meaning 'to have hiccough'. /ə/ has historically taken the sound [i] before the consonant /ɣ/, but this consonant appears to have dropped at a later time, thus leaving [ii]. To avoid complicating the morphemic form beyond necessity, we therefore here record the initial segment of this stem as /nii/, even though the first vowel historically is /ə/, because /nəi/ would yield [naa] by the sound rules.
Inflection
Declension pattern:
| Stem type: | Weak q-stem |
| Declension type: | p-declined |
| Declension sandhi: | Geminating |
| Gemination type: | r⇒qq |
| Stem before consonant | Stem before vowel | Notable forms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New orthography | niisoqqa | niisora | niisoraq, niisoqqap, niisoqqat, |
| Old orthography | niisorĸa | niisora | niisoraĸ, niisorĸap, niisorĸat, |
| Phonemic orthography | niisurra | niisura | niisuraq, niisurrap, niisurrat, |
Meanings and examples
I.e. the cavity of the neck above the breast bone (jugular notch?).