FromOld Irish-imm. Them is always broad (velarized) in Ulster, as if the ending were spelled-(e)am. This pronunciation arose by leveling of this ending with the broadm found in first-person singular prepositional pronouns such asagam,asam,chugam etc. CompareScottish Gaelic-am(first-person singular imperative).[1]
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “-im”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[1], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
Henrik Liljegren, Naseem Haider (2011) “-im”, inPalula Vocabulary (FLI Language and Culture Series; 7)[2], Islamabad, Pakistan: Forum for Language Initiatives,→ISBN
Turkish has word-final stress. Usually, when the possessive suffix-im is the last syllable of a word, it takes the stress. See also the first usage note of Etymology 2. However, when suffixed to a word with anomalous stress, the same syllable is stressed as before; for example,İzmir /ˈiz.miɾ/ +-im →İzmir’im /ˈiz.mi.ɾim/ (“my Izmir”).
If the noun ends in a vowel, the vowel of the possessive suffix is elided, becoming-m:
The suffix obeysvowel harmony and is used for words whose last vowel ise ori, and a small number ofloan words; for example,saat(“watch”) +-im →saatim (“my watch”). It may change into-ım,-um and-üm according to the last vowel of the word it is suffixed to. Examples:
kız(“girl”) +-im →kızım (“my girl (daughter)”) (used when the last vowel is “a” or “ı”);
yol(“road”) +-im →yolum (“my road”) (used when the last vowel is “o” or “u”);
yüz(“face”) +-im →yüzüm (“my face”) (used when the last vowel is “ö” or “ü”).
When a stem ends in a voiced consonant, it may become devoiced in syllable-final position. If a word ends in a thus devoiced “p”, “ç”, “t” or “k”, suffixing it with-im changes it back into a voiced “b”, “c”, “d” or “ğ”:
In many words that are originally monosyllables ending in two consonants, an epenthic “i” is inserted between these consonants. When suffixed with-im, the epenthic “i” is dropped:
FromOttoman Turkishـم,ـن(-im, -ım, -in, -ın, -en,“first-person singular suffix”), fromOld Anatolian Turkish[script needed](-ven,“first-person singular suffix”), ultimately fromProto-Turkic*-bẹn (seeben(“I”)). Cognate withOld Turkic𐰢𐰤(mn²/-men/,“first person singular suffix”),Karakhanidمَنْ(men,“I, first person singular postposition”),Old Uyghur[script needed](-men,“first person singular suffix”).
The suffix ultimately merged with the first-person singular possessive suffix (see Etymology 1 above) following the road *-bẹn → *-vẹn → *-ẹn → *-ẹm → -im. 11th-centuryKarakhanid scholar ofTurkic languagesKashgari already hints that the Oghuz use *-en dropping /m/ as opposed to the Karakhanid using "-men" CompareTurkmen-in,-än(“first-person singular suffix”),Azerbaijani-əm(“first-person singular suffix”). For a similar case of loss of initial /b/ at the suffix level, compare-iz(“first-person plural suffix”), fromProto-Common Turkic*biz (seebiz(“we”)).
In Turkish, as a word final stress language, when this suffix is at the end of a word it does not take the stress due to not being originally a suffix; therefore a differentiation is realized where the possessive suffix carries the stress. See also the first usage note on Etymology 1.
bel(“waist”) +-im(“first person suffix for "to be"”) →bélim(“I am (the) waist”), as opposed tobel(“waist”) +-im(“first-person possessive suffix”) →belím(“my waist”)
gel-(“come”) +-ecek(“future tense marker”) +-im(“personal suffix”) →gelecéğim(“I will come”), as opposed togelecek(“future”) +-im(“first-person possessive suffix”) →geleceğím(“my future”) or also alternativelygelecek(“future”) +-im(“first person suffix for "to be"”) →gelecéğim(“I am (the) future”)
If the word ends in a vowel, it's used with an auxiliary consonant; "y"(for the verb to be).
