Details

General

Morphemic form: {ukiuqaq}V
New orthography: ukioqarpoq
Old orthography: ukioĸarpoĸ
Sources: [CBBJRPIKJR97]
Combinations: View list
Constituents: {ukiuq}N + N{-qaq}V
Right sandhi: Default/none
Inflection sandhi:
Stem type: q-stem
Diathesis: Subjective
Valency: Avalent, Monovalent, Monovalent

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This construction is the conventional way of expressing "I am X years old". Notice that this is not expressed as a copula construction in Kalaallisut. Instead, the literal meaning of the construction is "I have years, that are X".

The haver of the years/age is the subject of the sentence (given in the ending), and the actual number of years is given before the verb, in the instrumental case. Notice that if the number is singular (i.e. 1), then the singular instrumental case ending is used; and otherwise, the plural is used. For the numbers 6, 11 and 16 (which are also singular, when used as numerals), the form with N{-lək}N is used, denoting a quantity, and therefore the plural case ending is also used here; cf. {aqvinələk}N, {atqanələk}N and {aqviqsanələk}N.

To ask someone his age, the interrogative stem {qassi}N, 'how many', is used as instrumental modifier, i.e. qassinik ukioqarpit? = "how old are you?".


Meanings and examples

The actual age is given as a number of years in the instrumental case.

  • qulinik ukioqarpoq, he is ten years old [CBBJRPIKJR97]
  • qassinik ukioqarpit?, how old are you?

Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References