Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The basic meaning of this stem is 'man'. It can sometimes also denote 'male' in a more general sense, especially of land-living mammals.

Lastly, with a possessive ending, or the verbal possessive affix N{-gə}V, it can also denote 'Possessor's father', e.g. angutaa, 'his father' (not 'his man'), angutigaara, 'he is my father', and so on. If instead one actually wants to express 'his man', in the sense of 'his boyfriend', N{-utə}N must first be added. Thus: angutaataa, 'his boyfriend'.

Note that there exists a (folk-etymological?) theory that this word is derived from the active participle V{ðə}N form of anguaa, 'he catches it', thus relating 'man' to 'one who catches (esp. seals)'. This is for example mentioned in Bjørnum [7]. However, according to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [18], this is likely wrong; and these authors instead suggest that it may be from some old, non-standard combination of {aŋə}V and the morpheme {un}, modern day form V{-(cc)utə}N. However, how this combination should give rise to the meaning 'man', is not clear.

Inflection

Declension pattern:

Meanings and examples