-sar
Greenlandic edit
Pronunciation edit
Suffix edit
-sar (v-v?, additive?)
- (reflexive if used intransitively) tries to cause to [verb]
- tissappoq (“have an erection”) -> tissassarpaa (“stimulate the penis of”)
Suffix edit
-sar (n-v?, additive?)
Further reading edit
- Vestgrønlands Grammatik, p. 100, F.A.J. Nielsen, 2014
Swedish edit
Suffix edit
-sar
- (colloquial, proscribed) Suffix for the indefinite plural form of some (mostly) loanwords of common gender
- avokado → avokadosar
- avocado → avocados
- bikini → bikinisar
- bikini → bikinis
Usage notes edit
Nouns ending on unstressed (short) -i (e.g. bikini), -o (e.g. avokado), -u (e.g. guru) and -y (e.g. jury) are rare in Swedish and most of them are loanwords. For this reason they do not have a native plural ending and speakers sometimes use a foreign plural -s or alternatively -sar, which can be regarded either as a double plural suffix (-s + -ar) or one unit. Alternatively -s- can be seen as an epenthetic consonant inserted to avoid vowel hiatus, i.e. *avokadoar > avokadosar.
This suffix is especially common when forming the definite plural by adding -na, as this ending cannot be added onto -s alone. For this reason, some speakers might say avokados in the plural indefinite, but avokadosarna in the plural definite.
Generally, this ending alongside -s are proscribed and not used in dictionaries, which usually recommend endings like -r or -er even after these four unstressed vowels.
References edit
- “När och varför används former som avokadosar och safarisar? [When and why are forms like avokadosar and safarisar used?]”, in Frågelådan[1], Swedish Language Council, 2019 November 20 (last accessed)
- Per Ledin (2013 June 21) “Gillar du avokadosar? Några ord om sar-pluralen [Do you like avokadosar? A few words about the -sar plural]”, in På svenska[2], archived from the original on 26 September 2020
- Gunlög Josefsson (2018) “Avokadosar och kepsar – ett epentetiskt s med olika funktioner [Avokadosar and kepsar – an epenthetic s with many functions]”, in Språk & stil[3], volume NF 28, Uppsala: Uppsala University, →ISSN, pages 5-21