-sar

Greenlandic

Pronunciation

• (Nuuk) IPA^(key): /-sar/, [-sɑʁ]

Suffix

-sar (v-v^?, additive^?)

1. (reflexive if used intransitively) tries to cause to [verb]

   tissappoq (“have an erection”) -> tissassarpaa (“stimulate the penis of”)

Suffix

-sar (n-v^?, additive^?)

1. collects, gathers or finds [noun]

Further reading

• Vestgrønlands Grammatik, p. 100, F.A.J. Nielsen, 2014

Old Tupi

Alternative forms

• -ar, -an

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *-ar, from Proto-Tupian *-at.

Suffix

-sar

1. forms agent nouns from verbs; -or; -er
   • 1622, anonymous author, “Magarefe”, in Vocabulario na lingoa Braſilica, volume 2 (overall work in Old Tupi and Portuguese), Piratininga, page 28; republished as Carlos Drummond, editor, Vocabulário na Língua Brasílica, 2nd edition, São Paulo: USP, 1953:

     Çoõboiçara.

     [So'ombo'isara.]

     Butcher.

     (literally, “Meat shredder.”)

Derived terms

Old Tupi terms suffixed with -sar

Descendants

• Nheengatu: -sara

References

• Eduardo de Almeida Navarro (2013) “-sar(a)”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 438, columns 1–2

Swedish

Suffix

-sar

1. (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

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

• “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

Anagrams

• ars, ras