Details

General

Morphemic form: N{'-k}V
New orthography: -ppoq
Old orthography: -gpoĸ, -ngpoĸ
Sources: [MFSJLK10], [SK71, under .poĸ, '-poĸ, and .niarpoĸ], [CWSL58]
Combinations: View list
Variants: N{-nək}V
Ancestor(s): +{nəg}V (PE)
Left sandhi: Truncative, Geminating, Fusional, Irregular
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi: Default/none
Stem type: k-stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this affix is 'Actor gets/catches N', with N typically denoting an animal traditionally hunted in Greenland. It is a non-productive, or only marginally productive, affix, but it is found in a number of lexicalised constructions. In particular, it is commonly used in combination with V{niaq}V in the sense of 'hunt for N', and V{niaq}N, denoting 'a hunter of N'. For example teriangniaĸ, 'arctic fox', from teriaĸ, 'mouse/lemming'.

According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10], the present affix is a variant of N{-nək}V, where /ne/ appears to have dropped, causing compensatory gemination in the stem instead.

Note also the affix N{-t}V, with seemingly the same meaning. According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10], that affix is unrelated to the present affix. However, in the Greenlandic dictionaries they are grouped together and listed as the same affix. Because of the New Orthography, they are become indistinguishable in writing, but even older dictionaries, written in the Old Orthography, also list them together.

For example, Kleinschmidt [SK71] gives both nánugpoĸ and agpápoĸ as examples of this affix, but whereas nánugpoĸ (i.e. nannuppoq) clearly is an example of the present affix, since it has caused gemination of /n/, and contains the final 'g', reflecting /k/, agpápoĸ seems to be from N{-t}V instead. The accent represents a stem-final /t/. However, this distinction is blurred in the new orthography, since we there only can see, that both stems end in a consonant.

Form
The comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10] records this affix as a /g/, rather than a /k/. Indeed, some of its left-sandhi behaviour is consistent with that of a g-initial affix, but since the present affix consists of only a single consonant phoneme (see below), following this would require us to record the present affix as N{'-g}V. However, that would conflict with my convention of writing all stem-final consonant as plosives (i.e. /ktq/), which indeed is what they become, if a stem is used without an ending. This creates an unusual 'chimeric' morpheme, that ought to be viewed as a /g/ from the left-hand side, but as a /k/ when viewed from the right. We therefore record it as /k/ here, to avoid breaking the convention of stem-final plosives, but note its g-like left-sandhi behaviour in the left-sandhi section.

Passive participle
Another speciality of the present affix is that it forms a special construction with the passive participle V{-ðaq}N, denoting 'a caught/gotten N', even though the present affix is monovalent and therefore does not have a Patient role. However, it seems that the incorporated noun N here is logically viewed as the Patient of the action. This form is often possessed to denote 'Possessor's caught N', i.e. 'the N caught by Possessor'. See Passive incorporation for a list of affixes that behave similarly.

This is another point where it appears to be distinguishable from N{-t}V. Both can create this special passive participle construction, but as Kleinschmidt [SK71] notes, some of them are formed with -taq, whereas others are formed with +taq. He gives the examples:

Other lexicalised examples in e.g. Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58] and Ordbogeeraq [JP67] are:

Thus, the pattern seems to be that +taq is used, when the verb is formed from the present affix (indicated by the 'g' in the stem, or a q-stem, i.e. kanajorpoĸ, nánugpoĸ), which is contrary to the usual left-sandhi rules of V{-ðaq}N; whereas -taq is used when the verb is formed from N{-t}V.

However, note that sometimes a verb stem may be formed with either of the two affixes. For example, Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58] also has an entry for puissigpoĸ from N{'-k}V, whereas Ordbogeeraq has puissípoĸ from N{-t}V.

I suspect N{-t}V is only used on vowel stems, whereas the present affix N{'-k}V may be used on any stem type, but this should only be regarded as an hypothesis.

Other meanings
The affix also appears in some lexicalised constructions, where it does not seem to have anything to do with catching an animal. For example nippappoq, nípagpoĸ, meaning 'he yells; makes a noise', from {nəpə}N, 'voice'. Here, the affix has both caused gemination of /p/ to /pp/, and /ə/ takes the sound [a].

Another example is innuppoq, ínugpoĸ, 'he meets/encounters people' (e.g. on a journey), from {inuk}N, 'human', where the affix has caused gemination of /n/ to /nn/.

The latter could perhaps be viewed as a special instance of the general meaning 'get', but the former is difficult to fit under the same heading. Thus, we shall not attempt to account for these other meanings here, since they only occur in lexicalised constructions, but merely note that they exist.


Left sandhi:

The affix is normally truncative, and may furthermore cause gemination in the stem when possible.

Furthermore, as noted under the description of its form, this affix should be viewed as g-initial, w.r.t. its left-sandhi behaviour. This means that on q-stems, it will not delete the final /q/, but instead merge with it to yield /qg/ ⇒ /r/, like most other truncative, g-initial affixes.

However, this would yield a stem-final /r/, and due to our convention of writing stem-final consonants as their plosive variants, such a stem-final /r/ would therefore again be written as /q/. In effect, the present affix therefore simply disappears when joined onto a q-stem. This is seen in a few examples, for example:

We make no attempt to encode this behaviour in the form of the present affix, but simply note that the /k/ becomes /q/ on q-stems (effectively replacing the stem-final consonant with an identical one).


Right sandhi:

The end-result of joining this onto a stem is a normal k-stem, except when the noun it joins onto is a q-stem, as noted in the left-sandhi section. In that case, it will be a q-stem instead. This affects the behaviour of the passive participle affix V{-ðaq}N, with which the present affix forms a special construction, cf. below.


Notable forms:

Inflection

Inflection pattern:

Stem type: k-stem
Inflection sandhi: Default/none


Meanings and examples

With noun stems for animals typically hunted in Greenland. It can also denote getting one's share in a catch of the animal N.

  • nannuppoq, nánugpoĸ, he killed a polar bear [CWSL58]

    From {nanuq}N, 'polar bear'. This is a lexicalised construction. Here, the affix has triggered gemination in the stem.

  • arfappoq, arfagpoĸ, he has caught a whale [CWSL58]

    From {aqvəq}N, 'whale'. This is a lexicalised construction. Here the affix has caused /ə/ to take the sound [a], even though it has not been able to cause gemination in the stem.

  • nannuttaa, nánugtâ, the polar bear that he has caught [SK71]

    With the 3sg/sg possessive ending N{-a}.

  • nannunniaq, nánungniaĸ, a polar bear hunter

    i.e. one who tries to catch a polar bear.

  • terianniaq, teriangniaĸ, fox

    From teriaq, 'mouse', so literally 'mouse-hunter'.

  • arfanniat, arfangniat, whale-catcher ship [CWSL58]

    Note that the word here is plural, arfanniat, because ships, like other vehicles, were previously referred to as plural, even if only a single ship was meant.

  • miterniaq, one who hunts for eider duck [CWSL58]

    From miteq, 'eider duck'.


Search the corpus for further examples.


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References