Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this stem is 'drum skin' or 'violin string'; possibly actually 'the material on a musical instrument that is responsible for making the sound'.

In modern day, there may be some confusion between three different stems, that are all spelt isi in the new orthography. Only in the etymological orthography of the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [21] can we distinguish all three:

• {əðə}N (eye), which derives from {əðə} with a regular change of /ð/ to /c/ following a vowel.
• {əsi}N (drum skin), which derives from {əciʀ} through a loss of the final /ʀ/.
• {isə}N (boot tip), which derives from {itəɣ} through a loss of the final /ɣ/, and then with assibilation of /t/ to /s/.

All three forms have fallen together into just one, isi, in the new orthography. You may therefore hear both e.g. isia and isaa for absolutive 3.sg/sg N{-a}. Some of the confusion was present already in the old orthography, where {əðə}N, isse, could be distinguished from ise, but the latter could be either {əsi}N or {isə}N, because the old orthography did not distinguish between /ə/ and true /i/.

Inflection

Declension pattern:

Meanings and examples