Details
General
| Morphemic form: | {aa(j)}* |
| New orthography: | aa- |
| Old orthography: | â- |
| Sources: | [MFSJLK10], [SK71], [JP67], [SB03] |
| Combinations: | View list |
| Right sandhi: | Irregular |
Description and behaviour
Form and usage:
According to Kleinschmidt [SK71], this morpheme is actually the same as the 'vocative' enclitic *{aa}, but here used as a prefix. It may be prefixed to any non-anaphoric demonstrative pronoun (i.e. without the other prefix {ta(ð)}*), albeit it is usually only used in the absolutive case (either singular or plural). The meaning is verbal: 'it is there!' or 'there it is!' (and in plural: 'there they are!'), where 'there' is the position indicated by the demonstrative.
Right sandhi:
The parenthetical segment (j) is injected whenever the prefix is added to any vowel-initial demonstrative.
With the demonstrative {uv}D in absolutive singular, the combination may optionally contract by dropping one /a/ from the prefix and not inject /j/. Thus, {aa(j)}* + {uv}D + D{ABS.sg} can yield two different forms:
- ⇒ aajuna (regularly formed), old orthography âjuna.
- ⇒ aana (with contraction), old orthography auna.
The two forms can be used interchangeably.
Meanings and examples
Where 'there' is the position indicated by the demonstrative to which this is prefixed.
Tags: Uncategorised
- aamanna, here it is!
[SK71]
- aana/aajuna, here it is!
[SK71]
- aajinnga, it is over there!
[SK71]
- aamakku, aaku, aajuku, aajikku, aasakku, here/over there/down there they are!
[SK71]
Note that these are built from the absolutive plural forms of the demonstratives.
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.
- [SB03] Stig Bjørnum (2003): Grønlandsk Grammatik.