A grammar of Pite Saami, 2014

7 Adjectivals
Table 7.6: Some comparative and superlative adjective paradigms
positive comparative superlative
no. pred.sg attr/pred.sg pred.pl attr/pred.sg pred.pl
i nävvre nievre-p -a nievre-mus -a ‘bad’
ådne åne-p -a åne-mus -a ‘short’
guhke guhke-p -a guhke-mus -a ‘long’
ii tjábbe tjábba-p -a tjábba-jmus -a ‘beautiful’
vasste vasste-p -a vasste-jmus -a ‘ugly’
gårå gårå-p -a gårå-jmus -a ‘bad’
fávvro fávro-p -a fávro-jmus -a ‘attractive’
iii luvas luvasu-p -o luvasu-mos -bmus-a ‘wet’
garras garrasu-p -o garrasu-mos -bmus-a ‘hard’
iv nanos nanosu-p -a nanosu-mos -bmus-a ‘strong’
bivval bivvalu-p -a bivvalu-mos -bmus-a ‘warm’
tjáhpat tjáhpadu-p -a tjáhpadu-mos -bmus-a ‘black’
galmas galbmasu-p -a galbmasu-mos -bmus-a ‘cold’
vuoras vuorasu-p -a vuorasu-mos -bmus-a ‘old’
njuallgat njuallgadu-p -a njuallgadu-mos -bmus-a ‘correct’
The allomorph -bmus- occurs whenever the resulting form has an odd number
of syllables, as is the case for roots with a final odd syllable in the plural predicative
form. Essentially, the superlative suffix always forms the final foot of a word,
and thus is the location for consonant gradation alternations. If a final, odd syllable
is present (e.g., for the plural predicative form), then the -bmus- allomorph
is chosen. 6
Examples for comparative and superlative adjectives in attributive position
can be found in (12) and (13), respectively. Instances for predicative usage can be
found in (18) and (19) in §7.5.
(12) bivvalup
bivvalu-p
dállke
dállke
warm-comp weather\nom.sg
‘warmer weather’
[pit090926.23m22s]e
(13) så dä
så dä
so
lä vuorasumos
lä vuorasu-mos
then be\3sg.prs old-superl
‘So then it’s the oldest place.’
saddje
saddje
place\nom.sg
[pit0906_Ahkajavvre_a.123]
6 Cf. §2.2.2 on prosodic domains and §4.1.2.1 on consonant gradation.
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