Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this stem is 'child', approximately from when it is able to walk, and until the age of 18 (the legal age in Greenland), although inuusuttoq is also used for 'teenager; adolescent'.

Meeraq is probably the most common word for 'child', but there are also two other words. According to Kleinschmidt [13], they are distinguished as follows:

• {naaluŋijaq}N denotes 'infant'. This word is used approximately until teh child is able to walk.
• {miiraq}N (the present stem) denotes 'child' in a general sense. If used with a possessive ending (e.g. to express 'our children'), it should properly be used with N{taq}N, 'pertaining to', so meerartavut, 'our children' (literally: 'those amongst us who are children/under-age') instead of meeqqavut. However, many will nowadays just say meeqqavut.
• {qətuqnaq}N also denotes 'child', but is only used with possessive endings to express 'child of Possessor', e.g. qitornaa, 'his child'.

Thus, following Kleinschmidt's distinction, meeraq can perhaps better be translated as 'young(ling)', i.e. denoting a state of being or phase of life, whereas qitornaq denotes 'offspring (of Possessor)'. However, nowadays this distinction may be blurred.

Etymology:

According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [21], the reconstructed historic form of this stem is {mi(i)ʀayuq}, but these authors speculate that it may be from a combination of {pi}N + N{-Vraq}N, with a mispronunciation (childish speech) of the initial /p/ as [m]; see also {piaraq}N. This would explain the similarity in form and meaning to the affixes N{-Vraq}N and N{-araq}N.

Inflection

Declension pattern:

Meanings and examples