Details

General

Morphemic form: N{-t}V
New orthography: -ppoq, +poq
Old orthography: '-poĸ
Sources: [MFSJLK10], [SK71, under .poĸ, '-poĸ, and .niarpoĸ], [CWSL58], [FAJN19]
Combinations: View list
Left sandhi: Truncative
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi: Default/none
Stem type: t-stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This affix, which consists of a single epenthetic consonant, is used to denote 'catch N' or 'kill 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'.

Note the affix N{'-k}V, which apparently has the same meaning as the present affix. According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10], the two are historically unrelated. However, in the new orthography they are become indistinguishable, and even in the Old Orthography dictionaries such as Kleinschmidt [SK71], they are listed under the same heading. However, they can be distinguished, since the present affix is indicated by an apostrophe (e.g. puissípoĸ, tugtúpoĸ, agpápoĸ); whereas N{'-k}V is indicated by a 'g' or 'ng' (e.g. nánugpoĸ, arfagpoĸ, teriangniaĸ). The entry for N{'-k}V discusses this entanglement at length.

Kleinschmidt [SK71] and Nielsen [FAJN19] note that this affix, despite being monovalent, occasionally may be used with the passive participle V{-ðaq}N, e.g. tuttutaq, 'a caught caribou' from tuttuppoq, 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', e.g. tuttutaa, 'the caribou he caught'. See Passive incorporation for a list of affixes that behave similarly.


Left sandhi:

We record the affix as truncative here, but this is tentative. The affix appears to only be used on vowel stems. On other stem types, N{'-k}V seems to be preferred.


Notable forms:

Inflection

Inflection pattern:

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


Meanings and examples

With noun stems for animals typically hunted in Greenland

  • tuttuppoq, tugtúpoĸ, he killed a caribou [CWSL58]

    From tuttu, 'caribou'.

  • puisippoq, puissípoĸ, he caught a seal [CWSL58]

    From puisi, 'seal'.

  • appappoq, agpápoĸ, he caught a murre [SK71, under .poĸ, '-poĸ]

    From appa, 'murre'.


Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References