Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This is the absolutive 3pl/pl possessive ending.

Left sandhi:

The ending is normally truncative. It also has a special sandhi rule, governing when the parenthetical segment (t) is inserted:

• When the preceding vowel sound is [a], the /t/ is inserted.
• Otherwise, the /t/ is not inserted.

In other words, the /t/ is inserted exactly in the cases where the /i/ is assimilated to [a]. Thus, for example:

• {nuna}N + N{-i(t)} ⇒ nunaat, 'their lands'. Here the /i/ is assimilated, so the /t/ is inserted.
• {əŋlu}N + N{-i(t)} ⇒ ill**ui, 'their houses'. Here the /i/ is not assimilated, so the /t/ is not inserted.

According to Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL51], when the stem declines with metathesis, the above rule may be optional. He gives the examples arĸit, arĸe as two different options for adding this ending on {atəq}N.

However, on {kamək}N, he gives the examples kamê, kangme, the former without metathesis, the latter with. However, in this case with metathesis, he only gives the expected option (according to the above rule), i.e. kammi, but not the second option without omission of /t/, i.e. kammit.

It is not clear whether {kamək}N is a special case, or whether {atəq}N is.

Meanings and examples

Search the corpus for further examples.

References

• [CR88] Christian Rasmussen (1888): Grønlandsk Sproglære.
• [CWSL51] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1951): Det Vestgrønlandske Sprog.
• [SB03] Stig Bjørnum (2003): Grønlandsk Grammatik.
• [FAJN19] Flemming A.J. Nielsen (2019): Vestgrønlandsk Grammatik.