Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This stem denotes 'cod'. It was most commonly spelt ûvaĸ in the old orthography [10, 13], i.e. with /v/ instead of /g/, but still with geminate [kk]. Today it may also be seen spelt as uuaq, which is derived from the old orthography form, since /v/ is not written in the combination /uva/ in the new orthography.

According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [18], it derives from a morpheme {uðukaʀ}, where the /ð/ appears to have dropped at some point, and the /k/ is reflected in the /g/ in the present-day form. Thus, /uugaq/ appears to be closer to the historical form than /uuvaq/, and we therefore use the former as the basis for the morphemic form recorded here.

Inflection sandhi:

Even when the absolutive singular form uuaq is used (i.e. with an unwritten /v/ instead of /g/), the stem still has geminate forms with 'kk'. For this reason, we record the form here with a /g/, since the behaviour then is regular. One way to think about this stem is therefore to say that the single (un-geminated) /g/ alternatively may be spelt as 'v' in the old orthography, and therefore omitted in the new orthography; but the double (geminated) /g/ is required.

Note that in the old orthography, the geminated 'kk' was spelt 'vk', and not 'gk' as is usual with a geminated /g/. However, this seems to be an artefact of the old orthography; it does not reflect a historical phoneme according to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [18].

Inflection

Declension pattern:

Notes on declension:

We include the old orthography declension with '-vaĸ' ⇒ '-vka', although the spelling nowadays is most commonly with '-gaq'.

Meanings and examples