Details

General

Morphemic form: {biili}N
New orthography: biili, biilit
Old orthography: bîlit
Sources: [JP67], [CBBJRPIKJR97]
Combinations: View list
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi: Default/none, p-declined
Stem type: Vowel stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This stem denotes 'car'. It is a loan word from Danish, bil. Since [b] and [p] are not distinguished in Kalaallisut, and the letter 'b' is not normally used, except in loan words, it might alternatively be spelt piili.

Depending on the level of conservativeness of the speaker, this stem may only be used in plural, even when referring to a single car. Oqaatsit [CBBJRPIKJR97] instead records the plural form biilit as denoting 'car with driver' (or, presumably: 'car with people in it'), as opposed to just the empty vehicle itself.


Inflection

Inflection pattern:

Stem type: Vowel stem
Inflection sandhi: Default/none, p-declined
Sources: [JP67]

Notes on inflection:

The stem inflects like an ordinary vowel stem with p-declension. Depending on the degree of conservativeness of the speaker, it may be used in plural, even with a singular meaning.


Meanings and examples

Possibly used in plural, even if referring to a singular car. Alternatively, the plural form may denote 'car with driver', according to Oqaatsit [CBBJRPIKJR97].


Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References