Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this stem is 'nine', and, if used with plural possessive endings, the ordinal 'ninth'.

The Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10] reconstructs it as {quləŋŋuʀutəŋit-}, but it is not clear that all all the affixes are present in the Kalaallisut descendent.

The base is {qulə(k)}N, 'ten', and the second morpheme seems to be N{-it}V. However, the source of the /ŋ/ is not clear. There are two obvious possibilities:

• The stem could be derived with the older form of N{-it}V, i.e. {ŋit-}, which had an initial /ŋ/.
• Alternatively, it could be derived with the modern-day form of N{-it}V, but with nasalation of the optional, stem-final /k/ in {qulə(k)}N.

The final morpheme is not explained in the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10], but I hypothesise that it is V{-luaq}V, 'almost, a little', but somehow used nominally. This would give the present stem a literal meaning like 'almost ten', which seems reasonable.

See also the variant form {quləiluaq}N, which seems to have been derived in the same way.

The present stem is not given in Kleinschmidt [SK71]. Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58] writes qulit-iluaq as an alternative version of {quləiluaq}N, and notes that this is South Greenlandic and usually pronounced qulingiluat. This hypothesis is spurious, if we follow the construction in the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, but it shows that this form existed at least as far back as 1926.

According to Kleinschmidt, the variant stem qulaaluat is 'provincial', and the proper way to express 'nine' is instead arfineq sisamat. However, nowadays, qulingiluat or qulaaluat seems to be the preferred way to express 'nine'. Of these, {quləŋiluaq}N seems to be the most common.

Inflection

Declension pattern:

Notes on declension:

The stem behaves like a weak q-stem with p-inflection. However, given its meaning it is only used in plural, and with plural possessive endings to express the ordinal 'ninth', i.e. qulingiluaat. As this is entirely regular, we do not give a declension pattern here.

Meanings and examples

Search the corpus for further examples.

Tags

• Thematic grouping / Numeral

References

• [MFSJLK10] Michael Fortescue, Steven Jacobson, Lawrence Kaplan (2010): Comparative Eskimo Dictionary (2ED).
• [CWSL58] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
• [CBBJRPIKJR97] Christian Berthelsen, Birgitte Jakobsen, Robert Petersen, Inge Kleivan & Jørgen Rischel (1997): Oqaatsit.
• [JP67] Jonathan Petersen (1967): Ordbogêraĸ.
• [CWSL51] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1951): Det Vestgrønlandske Sprog.
• [SK71] Samuel Kleinschmidt (1871): Den grønlandske Ordbog.