onçóm

See also: oncom

Macanese

Alternative forms
  • unçôm, unçom, ungsóm, unsóm, unsó, onsom, (common) onçôm, onçom

Etymology

Portuguese um (“a, one”) + só (“alone”) (Macanese unga +‎ sô), hence the older forms unsó and unçom, first formed in Malaysian Portuguese and Kristang. Final nasalization possibly influenced by the nasality of the un- (and later on-) component.[1] For the /u/ → /o/ shift, compare fonçám (versus expected *funçám). For the word-final nasalization, compare sium.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /oŋˈsɔŋ/, /uŋˈsɔŋ/

Adjective

onçóm

  1. alone, unaccompanied (by oneself)
    Synonyms: sô, sômente
    êle onçóm vêm ― he came alone
    já ficâ onçóm ― he was left alone

Pronoun

onçóm

  1. reflexive pronoun: oneself[2]
    têm na onçóm sa casa ― he is in his own home
    sâm êle onçóm falâ ― he said it himself

Usage notes
  • May take the place of Portuguese se, for example entreter-se (“to keep oneself entertained”) becomes entretê onçóm in Macanese.
  • As seen in the first collocation, onçóm-sa (“one's own”) is a possible possessive pronoun, however it is not as common as su which is functionally equivalent.
  • Often written as onçôm.

See also
Macanese personal pronouns (edit)
Person Singular Possessive Plural Possessive Reflexive Possessive
First iou, io, mi*, ieu* iou-sa, iou-sua#, minha, io-sa, io-sua# nôs, nosôtro* nôs-sa, nôsso, nôs-sua# onçóm su, onçóm-sa*, onçóm-sua#
Second vôs vôs-sa, vôsso, su, vôs-sua# vosôtro vosôtro-sa, su, vosôtro-sua#
Third êle, êla* êle-sa, su, êle-sua# ilôtro, elôtro*, olôtro*, ulôtro* ilôtro-sa, su, ilôtro-sua#

#: dated.
*: rare.

References
  1. Batalha, Graciete Nogueira (1988) “onçom”, in Glossário do dialecto macaense: notas linguísticas, etnográficas e folclóricas [Glossary of the Macanese dialect: linguistic, ethnographic and folkloric notes], Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau, page 498
  2. https://www.macaneselibrary.org/pub/english/uipatua.htm#oncom
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