Trolli se ei ole poika leikki jos mie tartuttelen: frekventatiivijohdoksen kehittyminen adversatiiviseksi passiiviksi kveenissä pohjoissaamen kielikontaktin seurauksena

The development of frequentative verb derivatives into adversative passive in Kven as a result of language contact with Northern Sámi

Authors

  • Leena Mirjam Niiranen UiT Norjan arktinen yliopisto

Keywords:

adversative passive, language contact, language change, Kven, Sami

Abstract

Derivatives ending in ttele are used with a passive meaning in the Kven dialects of Porsanger
and Nordreisa. This use is a result of language contact with Sami. As in the Sami model of
adversative passive, these Kven passive derivatives express an unfavorable event. They are
used with a subject argument which has a semantic role as a patient or experiencer and
an agent expressed in the allative case. However, not many verbs have gone through this
semantic change. This semantic change illustrates innovative language use among bilinguals.
Both second language learners, such as those described by Siitonen (1999) but also bilinguals
interpret linguistic phenomena they encounter in one language based on the knowledge of
languages they already know. However, while multilinguals create innovations, only those
innovations that are accepted by the entire speech community become permanent.