Details

General

Morphemic form: {ta(ð)}*
New orthography: ta-
Old orthography: ta-
Sources: [MFSJLK10], [SK71], [CWSL51]
Combinations: View list
Variants: {tacc}D
Right sandhi: Irregular, Geminating

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This is one of the few prefixes in Kalaallisut. It is only used with the demonstrative stems, where it is used to refer back to something previously mentioned (anaphora). Kleinschmidt [SK71] writes, that it is used "to refer back, namely when one of these words [demonstratives] are used about something, that was just spoken about, or which the addressee in any way is aware of / has on his mind."

According to the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary [MFSJLK10], this morpheme derives from {tað}. The /ð/ is not always present but is injected before some demonstrative roots. See also the variant form {tacc}D, which appears to be the same morpheme, but used as a demonstrative root, and where the /ð/ is present as /c/.


Right sandhi:

The prefix injects its (ð) before plosives /pkq/ to geminate, except the /k/ in {dem}N, which just becomes /takan/. Thus we have:

In the predicative/exclamatory forms, where the demonstrative {a} also causes gemination of the last consonant, the prefix may in some cases suppress that (whilst simultaneously causing gemination of the initial consonant as above). However, this is too irregular to give a useful rule, so these cases are best learnt individually instead. Thus, see the entries for the individual demonstratives.


Meanings and examples


Search the corpus for further examples.


Tags

References