Details
General
| Morphemic form: | {ələ}N |
| New orthography: | illit, ilinni, ilinnut, ilinnit, ilissi, ilissinni, ilissinnut, ilissinnit |
| Old orthography: | ivdlit, ilingne, ilingnut, ilingnit, ilivse, ilivsíne, ilivsínut, ilivsínit |
| Sources: | [MFSJLK10], [SK71], [JP67], [CWSL51], [CWSL58], [CBBJRPIKJR97] |
| Combinations: | View list |
| Right sandhi: | Default/none |
| Inflection sandhi: | Irregular |
| Stem type: | ə-stem |
Description and behaviour
Form and usage:
This stem is used to form the 2nd person pronouns, i.e. 'thou/you', 'thee/you', 'thy/your' etc. According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10], it derives from a morpheme {əlpət}, which the authors relate to the verbal stem {ət}V and the ergative 2sg marker {vət}. However, this relationship is historical, and not quite obvious in Kalaallisut, so we do not record this stem as a combination here.
Note: Kleinschmidt [SK71] and Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL51] believed the stem was somehow derived from the demonstrative {dem}N, similar to how the 1st person pronoun {uva}N is derived from {uv}D. However, the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10] does not support this.
Explicit pronouns are not commonly used, since this information is also shown in the verbal endings. However, they may be used e.g. in responses to questions, to disambiguate some sentences and constructions (e.g. 1sg vs. 2sg possessive constructions, e.g. illunni, 'my house' (or 'thy house') vs. illit illunni, 'thy house'), and for emphasis.
Right sandhi:
The stem is not normally used with affixes. However, if an affix is added, it will be added to the absolutive form, i.e. illit, ilissi, rather than to the bare stem. If the affix is truncative, it will simply remove the final /t/ in illit, but this will not 'un-geminate' the double /ll/.
Inflection
Inflection pattern:
| Stem type: | ə-stem |
| Inflection sandhi: | Irregular |
| Sources: | [JP67], [CWSL51] |
| Stem before consonant | Stem before vowel | Notable forms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New orthography | ili | - | illit, ilissi, illit, ilissi, ilinnik, ilissinnik, ilinni, ilissinni, ilinnut, ilissinnut, ilinnit, ilissinnit, ilikkut, ilissigut, ilittut, ilissisut |
| Old orthography | ili | - | ivdlit, ilivse, ivdlit, ilivse, ilingnik, ilivsínik, ilingne, ilivsíne, ilingnut, ilivsínut, ilingnit, ilivsínit, iligkut, ilivsigut, iligtut, ilivsisut |
| Phonemic orthography | ələ | - | əllət, ələvsi, əllət, ələvsi, ələknək, uvamtənnək, ələkni, ələvsinni, ələknut, ələvsinnut, ələknət, ələvsinnət, ələkgut, ələvsigut, ələktut, ələvsitut |
Notes on inflection:
The inflection is with a mixture of possessive endings:
Absolutive/ergative: The forms are the same in both cases, i.e. there is no difference between absolutive and ergative. The singular marker is the absolutive 2sg marker {t}, which causes gemination of /l/, although none of the other endings do this. The plural marker is the ergative 2pl marker {vsi}.
The non-grammatical cases (instrumental, locative, etc...) use the corresponding possessive endings, i.e. the 2sg endings for the singular forms, and the 2pl endings for the plural forms. This is similar to the 1st pronoun {uva}N.
Meanings and examples
Search the corpus for further examples.
Tags
References
- [MFSJLK10] Michael Fortescue, Steven Jacobson, Lawrence Kaplan (2010): Comparative Eskimo Dictionary (2ED).
- [SK71] Samuel Kleinschmidt (1871): Den grønlandske Ordbog.
- [JP67] Jonathan Petersen (1967): Ordbogêraĸ.
- [CWSL51] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1951): Det Vestgrønlandske Sprog.
- [CWSL58] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
- [CBBJRPIKJR97] Christian Berthelsen, Birgitte Jakobsen, Robert Petersen, Inge Kleivan & Jørgen Rischel (1997): Oqaatsit.