Details

General

Morphemic form: N{-kanniq}N
New orthography: -kanneq
Old orthography: -káneĸ
Sources: [SK71], [JP67], [CWSL58]
Combinations: View list
Variants: V{-kanniq}V
See also: N{-ŋajak}N
Ancestor(s): +{kannir}V (PE)
Left sandhi: Truncative
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi: Weak stem, Default/none, p-declined
Stem type: q-stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This affix has limited combination potential and does not appear to be used much productively. It is seemingly only used with spatial/areal nouns, or other nouns denoting a position, on which it denotes 'almost on N' or 'more or less'. The meaning is thus similar to that of N{-ŋajak}N, which also seems to be in more productive use today.

In some cases, it even seems to be used like an enclitic, rather than as an affix. Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58] gives some examples, where it has been added to some particles. This is similar to a few other affixes, in particular N{(q)cuaq}N and N{-(g)innaq}N, which are also sometimes used in this fashion.

Another enclitic-like usage is with spatial/areal nouns in the (unpossessed) allative case, i.e. -mut, -nut. On these, it generally appears to be added onto the case ending, like an enclitic, rather than onto the noun stem before the ending. This oddity is noted both by Kleinschmidt [SK71] and Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58].

As with these other affixes, we do not record a separate enclitic form of this affix, but merely record the examples of this irregular usage.


Inflection

Inflection pattern:

Stem type: q-stem
Inflection sandhi: Weak stem, Default/none, p-declined

Notes on inflection:

All usage examples of this affix only use the unpossessed absolutive singular, or with a 3sg/sg possessive ending N{-a}. Thus, it is unclear how it declines, or whether it is even used with other unpossessed case endings. In the absence of further examples, we record it as a p-declined weak q-stem, since that is the most common, but do not give a full inflection pattern.


Meanings and examples

Only with spatial nouns.

Tags:

  • isukannia, almost at the end of it [CWSL58]

    From isu, 'end', and with the absolutive 3sg/sg possessive ending N{-a}.

  • qitikannia, almost on the middle of it [CWSL58]

    From qiteq, 'middle', and with the absolutive 3sg/sg possessive ending N{-a}.

  • saakanniani, almost in front of it [SK71]

    From {saaq}N, 'area in front', with possessive locative 3sg/sg N{-ani}.

  • kujatikannianit, almost from the south of it [SK71]

    From {kujatə}N, 'area to the south', with possessive ablative 3sg/sg N{-anət}.

  • sanimukanneq, almost to the side [SK71]

    From sanimut, 'to the side'. This is an example of the affix being added directly onto an allative case ending.

  • immakanneq, not so hard! [SK71]

    This is apparently a lexicalised exclamation, also found in Oqaatsit (1997).

  • maannakanneq, almost now; soon, in a moment [SK71]

    From maanna, 'now'. This is an example of the affix being added onto a particle.

  • erniinnakanneq, quite soon [CWSL58]

    From erniinnaq, 'soon, in a moment'. This is an example of the affix being added onto a particle.


Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References