Details

General

Morphemic form: *{mi}
New orthography: +mi
Old orthography: -me
Sources: [CBBJRPIKJR97], [CWSL58]
Combinations: View list
Left sandhi: Default

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This enclitic is used for contrastive emphasis, which can be translated as something like 'what about ...?'. For example, imagine someone is talking about a group of people; and then someone (who has not been mentioned) asks: 'and what about me?'. This would be translated with the present enclitic, i.e. uangami?

Likewise, imagine someone is comparing the price of potatoes and apples in a store. Then he asks the storekeeper: 'how much does the potatoes cost?' And then, as a follow-up question: 'and what about the apples?' This too would be expressed with this enclitic, i.e. iipilimmi?

A secondary meaning is that it is used for emphasis or confirmation, which can often be translated as 'indeed'.


Meanings and examples

Contrastive emphasis.

  • aqagumi?, how about tomorrow?
  • uangami?, what about me?

Used for emphasis or confirmation.

  • ilumummi, true indeed

    From ilumut.

  • qangalimi takuvugut!, how long indeed since we saw each other!

    This can maybe be considered the Greenlandic version of the expression 'long time, no see'.


Search the corpus for further examples.


References