Variation with the Dative

Another kind of variation that is not usually described adequately is the difference between uses of the dative ukku suffix and the extended dative involving ukku plus aaka, which is usually glossed as `for the sake of'. In fact it is not always clear in actual usage why one of these is used and not the other. For example, using the previous example and extending it somewhat, we might get the sentence

a. enakk-aaka idu ungalaale mudiyumaa?

which varies with

b. enakku idu ungalaale mudiyumaa?

The difference in meaning is approximately as follows:

a. Can you make an special effort to do this for me?

b. Can you make an effort to do this for me?

Another example of this might be illustrated by the pairs c. and d.:

c. idukkaaka naan vandirukkeen `I came especially to do this'

d. idukku naan vandirukkeen `I came to do this'