Details

General

Morphemic form: {sila}N
New orthography: sila, silat
Old orthography: sila, silat
Sources: [MFSJLK10], [SK71], [JP67], [CWSL58], [CBBJRPIKJR97]
Combinations: View list
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi: Default/none, p-declined
Stem type: Vowel stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

According to Kleinschmidt [SK71], this stem has a number of different meanings, that are difficult to gather into a single translation. He lists no less than 5 different translations, depending on context:

  1. 'The world', i.e. everything that one sees outside: land, sea, clouds etc.
  2. 'The outside', i.e. the area/space outside of e.g. the house.
  3. 'The weather', i.e. the air and everything in it.
  4. 'The Spirit of the Air', i.e. a personification of the air/weather, from pre-Christian Inuit mythology.
  5. 'Mind/intellect'. Kleinschmidt [SK71] explains this meaning as 'that which relates to the human body, as the air relates to the body of the earth'. However, this still seem incomprehensible.

Thus, the core meaning seems to be 'weather' or 'outside', but the meaning 'mind/intellect' is difficult to fit under this heading (despite Kleinschmidt's efforts).


Inflection

Inflection pattern:

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

Notes on inflection:

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


Meanings and examples

Note: Oqaatsit [CBBJRPIKJR97] has 'the world order' instead.

  • sila manna, this world [SK71]
  • silap aappaa, the other world [SK71]

I.e. outside of whatever place one is in.

  • silamiippoq, he is outside [SK71]

    E.g., outside of the house.

  • silamut pisa, let us go outside [SK71]

    The verb is {pi}V + V{ta} with assibilation of /t/ to /s/ because of the true /i/ in the stem.

  • sila pitsanngoqaaq, the weather has (now) become much better [SK71]
  • sila ajorunnaarpat, when the weather gets better [SK71]
  • silagippoq, the weather is beautiful

I.e. the personified air/weather.


Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References