Details

General

Morphemic form: {agcak}N
New orthography: assak
Old orthography: agssak
Sources: [MFSJLK10], [SK71], [CWSL58], [CBBJRPIKJR97], [JP67]
Combinations: View list
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi: Default/none
Stem type(s): Regular k-stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

According to Kleinschmidt [SK71], this stem has three meanings:

Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58] only mention the two first meanings. Kleinschmidt further mentions that the word also denotes 'hand' when used in plural, i.e. a hand is viewed as a collection of fingers.

However, the newer dictionary Oqaatsit [CBBJRPIKJR97] only records the meaning 'hand' for this stem. Thus, nowadays, this stem is also used in singular in the sense of 'hand'. For 'finger', {inu(j)ak}N is used instead.


Inflection

Declension pattern:

Stem type: Regular k-stem
Declension type: up-declined
Declension sandhi: Default/none

Stem before consonant Stem before vowel Notable forms
New orthography assak assa assak, assaap, assaat
Old orthography agssak agssa agssak, agssaup, agssait
Phonemic orthography agcak agca agcak, agcaup, agcait


Meanings and examples

In older literature, the meaning is 'finger' in singular, and 'hand' in plural, e.g. in [SK71], [CWSL58]. Nowadays, the stem is also used in singular in the sense of 'hand', as in [CBBJRPIKJR97].

  • assaat naallugit, ten [SK71]

    Literally: 'the fingers to end'.

  • assai, his hand; his hands [SK71]

    I.e., according to Kleinschmidt, the plural form is used for both the singular and plural meaning.


Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References