Details

General

Morphemic form: {kavvi}N
New orthography: kaffi, kaffit
Old orthography: kavfe, kavfit
Sources: [JP67], [CBBJRPIKJR97]
Combinations: View list
Right sandhi: Assibilation (t⇒s)
Inflection sandhi: Default/none, p-declined
Stem type: Vowel stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This stem is a loan word from Danish, kaffe, i.e. 'coffee'. In singular, it refers to the finished drink, whereas in plural, it can refer to the beans (whole or ground).

Note that /vv/ always become [ff] in West Greenlandic (giving the same pronunciation as in Danish); but in East Greenlandic, /vv/ always become [pp]. Hence, in East Greenland, it would actually be spelt and pronounced kappi. I saw this, written on a label on a thermo jug in an office in Illoqqortoormiut.


Right sandhi:

This is one of the four 'traditional luxury goods' (kaffi, kaagi, viini, viski) that always will assibilate a following /t/, especially on V{tuq}V.


Inflection

Inflection pattern:

Stem type: Vowel stem
Inflection sandhi: Default/none, p-declined
Sources: [JP67], [CWSL51]

Notes on inflection:

The stem inflects like an ordinary vowel stem with p-declension. As this is entirely regular, we do not record an inflection paradigm here.


Meanings and examples

In singular: as a drink. In plural: the beans (whole or ground).


Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References