As repeatedly stated is a deep understanding of the sound rules THE very prerogative for acquiring effective Greenlandic. You therefore get yet another chapter that will fill you with new information almost to the bursting point. Take your time and give the chapter what it takes. It is not an easy task but you may look forward to the next chapter which will add only little news but rather pick up on your present knowledge.
Learn the new words off by heart. Remember the proper acquisition order from target language to mother tongue - not the other way yet. And remember to speak out the words and endings loud. In this chapter you will give more than normal attention to the new words since the grammar hereunder will draw all your resources. Walk through the words on paper several times and after that you will practice at least an hour or two with automaton II-2.
N{±it} up-inflected noun absolutive and relative plural
N{±tut} noun in case aequalis "like N"
N{±at} noun in absolutive singular "owned" by a plural possessor: 3.Pl-Sg
N{±nut} noun in terminal case plural or after personal ending "to N"
Vb{+(l)luŋa} intransitive contemporary mood 1.Sg "I"
Vb{+(l)luni} intransitive contemporary mood 4.Sg "he
Vb{+(l)luŋa} transitive contemporary mood having "me" as object
Vb{+(l)lugu} transitive contemporary mood having "him" as object
Vb{+vaa} verb in indicative 3.Sg-3.Sg "he-him"
Vb{+varsi} verb in indicative 2.Pl-3.Sg "I-him"
angajulleq the oldest
arnaq a woman
ator- to use it
immikkoortoq a chapter
immikkut special
ila a buddy/ a family member/ somebody (with personal ending ila act as partitive (singular's ila = 'part of N' plural's ila = ' one of/ some of N'))
ilaa you see! Right?
ilinniarnertuunngorniarfik a gymnasium/ GU
Kalaallit Nunaat Greenland
kingulleq the last/ the prior
meeraq (miir(q)aq) a child
nammineq himself
nittenhundredeoghalvfjerds 1970
nukappiaraq (nukappiar(q)aq) a boy
nukarleq the youngest
nuna a country
nuup- to move
oqaasilerineq linguistics (= oqaaseq-LIRI+NIQ)
oqaluttuar- to tell
oqar- to say
pi- to refer to it/ "about OBJECT"
qarasaasiaq a computer
qulit (*quli) 10
sammisari- to deal with it
taamani then
tallimat five
toogtredive 32
toogtres 62
ulloq a day
ullumi today
N-INNAQ only an N/ exclusively N
N-LIK one having N
N+PAK=SUAQ lots of N-s (only with plural endings)
Vb-LAAR to Vb a little
Vb+NIQ the act of Vb
Vb+SIMA to Vb over time/ to past Vb
UNA here is .. Next to impossible to translate clitic that is widely used in spoken language as in today's lesson after personal names. NN-una means something like 'This is NN/ NN speaking
Hej, Tikaana. Tutsiuteqqippugut.
Immikkoortoq kingulleq eqqaamavarsi, ilaa? Taamani nammineq pillunga oqaluttualaarpunga. Ullumi Per pillugu oqaluttualaassaanga.
Per 62-inik ukioqarpoq. Qallunaajuvoq 1970-imili Kalaallit Nunaannut nuuppoq ukiorpassuarnilu Kalaallit Nunaanni najugaqarsimalluni. Oqaasilerisutut ilinniarsimavoq. Ukiuni kingullerni qarasaasiaq atorlugu oqaasilerineq immikkut sammisarivaa.
Tallimanik meeraqarpoq. Angajulleq arnaavoq Unamik atilik. 32-nik ukioqarpoq. Fynimi ilinniarnertuunngorniarfiit ilaanni adjunktiuvoq. Nukarleq nukappiaraavoq. Taanna Nukamik ateqarpoq. Nuka arfineq-pingasuinnarnik ukioqarpoq.
In the endings in chapter 1 and also here in chapter 2 you met the notation N{±..}. Such instances occur when N's class interact with the material to follow in a rather complicated way.
To understand the process we need to look a little at the nouns' declinational classes. We have two classes of nouns each with a number of subclasses
One group of nouns willingly loose their final consonants before truncating morphemes. We say that these nouns are p-inflected named after the relative case marker in singular N{-p}.
Another group of nouns only unwillingly let go of the final consonant before derivational morphemes and endings. We call them up-inflected after their relative case marker in singular N{±up}.
Next to the characteristics in the morphemes. In principle we have three types of morphemes
type {- ..}
type {± ..}
type {+ ..}
Type {± ..} lets N decide what to do. Qaqortoq is p-inflected and therefore willing to give up its final consonant whereas Ilisimatusarfik is up-inflected and as such tries to retain its final /k/. So when adding for instance {±mi} (local case Sg with no personal endings involved) we therefore get N{-mi} in Qaqortumi but N{+mi} in Ilisimatusarfimmi.
Here you get yet another few examples with N{± mi}:
eqqumiitsuliortoq is p-inflected so 'at the artist' will be constructed with {minus mi} = eqqumiitsuliortumi
ilinniarnertuunngorniarfik is up-inflected so 'at the gymnasium' takes {plus mi} = ilinniarnertuunngorniarfimmi
Kangerlussuaq is up-inflected so 'in Kangerlussuaq' with {plus mi} = Kangerlussuarmi
ulloq is p-inflected so 'today' takes {minus mi} = ullumi
tutsiuteqqittarneq is up-inflected so 'during the repeated let-hear-from' we need {plus ni} = tutsiuteqqittarnerni
nukappiaraannaq (/nukappiaraq-INNAQ/) is up-inflected so 'only with the boys' takes {plus ni} = nukappiaraannarni
arnaq is p-inflected so 'at the women' takes {minus ni} = arnani
I hope that you remember this piece of information from last chapter
The participle is the verb form we among other things use to make subordinate clauses in 'that' but only when the subject in the main clause is different from the subject for the participle.
In today's text you saw a few examples of the opposite case namely when the main clause and the subordinate clause share the same subject. In such cases participle must not be used. Instead one uses the contemporative in the subordinate clause and all other instances of secondary verbal activities performed by the same subject. In today's text we saw
Per.. nuuppoq .. (Per) najugaqarsimalluni ..
'Per moved' is the main clause/ the primary message and 'Per has lived' is further information about the same subject. It is therefore not idiomatic to use indicative in najugaqarsimavoq. The comtemporary works smoother najugaqarsimalluni.
The other example was
(Per) qarasaasiaq atorlugu (Per) oqaasilerivoq ..
'Per works as a linguist' is the primary piece of information but another piece of information is added namely that the same Per uses a computer for the purpose. Since this is the secondary piece of information it should be put in the contemporative.
You will hear the contemporative mood in almost every sentence you hear in real communication so you must learn how to perceive it already in this early phase of your learning.
The contemporative is namely not only used to express English subordinate clauses as in 'I am sure that I told you' (where you in Greenlandic will 'be sure' in the indicative mood and 'tell' in the contemporative mood). The contemporative also very frequently expresses what in English would have been adverbs as in 'it was pleasantly warm' which in Greenlandic would be 'it was was warm (indicative mood) being pleasant (contemporative mood). Finally, contemporative mood often breaks up complex semantics into several statements as in the language technology example .
The contemporative mood is as mentioned above extremely frequently used so it is mandatory for you to learn to perceive it. But it will most likely take some time before you are able to produce it yourself fast enough for practical communication. Fortunately, it is rather easy to work around it by putting an extra full stop and breaking down a complex statement into several main clauses as in the example above where you perfectly well could have expressed the same meaning in two separate sentences
Per .. nuuppoq. Ukiorpassuarni Kalaallit Nunaanni najugaqarsimavoq
Normally +MORPHEME means simple addition to the stem before - of course with due respect to the general sound rules. They work without exception whenever parts of language are glued together.
There are, though, a few morphemes that insist on a double consonant before them. N+PAK - therefore also N+PAK=SUAQ - and N+SUAQ have such behaviour.
Whenever the morphemes are added to a consonant this comes by itself but with a vowel before there is nothing to build the double consonant. Therefore an /r/ is added between stem and morpheme:
ukioq+PAK=SUAQ+ni ⟹ ukiorpassuarni ('for many years')
ilinniarnertuunngorniarfik+PAK=SUAQ+ni ⟹ ilinniarnertuunngorniarfippassuarni ('in
many grammar schools')
anaana+r+PAK=SUAQ+ni ⟹ anaanarpassuarni ('in many mothers')
Here are a few examples with N+SUAQ:
akisooq+SUAQ ⟹ akisoorsuaq ('sth very expensive')
ilisimatusarfik+SUAQ ⟹ ilisimatusarfissuaq ('a big university')
illu+r+SUAQ ⟹ illorsuaq ('a big house')
One speciality with the contemporative mood may be a bit surprising in the beginning but is actually logical and easy to understand.
The subject for a contemporative is always given as it normally only can be the subject of the main clause. It is thus superfluous to repeat that piece of information.
That is exactly what Greenlandic exploits with the transitive contemporative mood. The subject is simply left out of the ending leaving only information about the object. We thus get:
atorsimallugu means 'that I have used it' in a sentence as oqarpunga qarasaasiaq atorsimallugu
atorsimallugu means 'that you have used it' in a sentence as oqarpit qarasaasiaq atorsimallugu?
atorsimallugu means 'that he has used it' in a sentence as oqarpoq qarasaasiaq atorsimallugu
atorsimallugu means 'that we have used it' in the sentence oqarpugut qarasaasiaq atorsimallugu
We will not yet try to cover the contemporative in details but only lift this corner of the veil. If you personally are happy with whole paradigms and connected systems you should consult a grammar book. Almost all grammar books on Greenlandic include lots of whole paradigms.
Genitive is the form of the noun to be used whenever the noun is "the owner" of something: 'my father's clock', 'she is every boy's dream', 'the book's cover' are all examples of genitive. My father owns the clock, the boys "own" the dream, and the book own the cover. We call the grammatical owner possessor.
The clock, the dream, and the cover are owned by the possessors. Grammatically such words are termed possessum.
In most languages in the world only the possessor is grammatically marked (it is the /s/ that tells us who the possessor is) but in Greenlandic both the possessor and possessum are marked with grammatical endings.
The possessor is in the relative case whereas the possessum is in whatever case any other noun in the same position in the sentence would be in.
'Per's student is called Tika' ⟹ Per is possessor so he will be relative case whereas student is subject for an intransitive verb. She will get an ending telling that she is possessum but will be put in the absolutive case like all other subjects for intransitive verbs.
'Per's student recorded the material' ⟹ Per is still possessor and will accordingly be in the relative case but in this sentence also student must be put in the relative case since student now is subject for a transitive verb. But she will be supplied with an ending telling us that she is possessum.
'Per's student's father is called Kunngi' ⟹ Per is possessor. He is relative case as is student since she, too, is possessor. father, though, is absolutive since he is subject for the intransitive verb ateqarpoq. Still, both student and father will get endings telling us that they are possessum
'They took classes with Per's student' ⟹ student is local case but supplied with an ending telling us that she is possessum.
We will not yet deal with relative case in details but in today's text we saw two possessor-possessum phrases. We will address those now:
Kalaallit Nunaat means 'Greenland'. It consists of possessor kalaaleq in the plural and in relative case. Possessor is always relative case. Furthermore, the construction contains the word nuna and the ending N{±at} being possessum. Ending tells us that possessor is 3. person plural ('their') and that possessum is singular (only one country).
ilinniarnertuunngorniarfiit ilaanni means 'in one of the grammar schools'. It consists of possessor ilinniarnertuunngorniarfik being plural and relative case as possessor always is followed by possessum (=the owned one) ila. ila is the element expressing 'one out of N'. In itself the word ila means 'en fælle' but phrases like 'their one ila' /ila-at/ ilaat is equivalent to English 'one of them' as 'their ila plural' /ila-it/ ilaat would mean 'some of them'.
In this example ila has the ending N{±at} (= their one N) and the locative ending N{±ni}. Element for element Ilinniarnertuunngorniarfiit ilaanni accordingly means 'in the grammar schools' one ila' or to put it more idiomatically 'in one of the grammar schools'.
If you right now feel that Greenlandic works in a cumbersome way you maybe should try to remember your own problems with the partitive genitive in latin back in school or give a thought to foreigners' problems with the many ways to express this 'part-of-something idea' in English (how exactly will I know when to say part of vs. share of vs. one of vs. piece of etc. etc.)
The fact is that it is correct that it is complicated in Greenlandic but so it is in almost all other languages as well.
Already in module I you saw the crucial rule that one in principle always needs to build words on the base of a wordform without endings. If you stretch your understanding just a bit you actually recognize the logic also from English. A 'stamp collector' most unlikely has collected only one stamp as the word says in isolation. And a 'womanizer' most likely has had a go on more than one woman. Still we do not speak of a *stamps collector or a *womenizer. We understand the plural somehow else.
The phenomenon of singular bases for word building is thus not entirely unknown to an English speaker but the scale is admittedly quite a bit larger in Greenlandic than in English.
In today's text we had the word ukiorpassuarnilu. The derivational morpheme N+PAK=SUAQ of course never occurs in the singular. It has to be plural as in kalaalerpassuit (many Greenlanders), ilinniarnertuunngorniarfippassuit (lots of grammar schools) and illorpassuit (lots of houses).
The examples above all have a grammatical ending for plural. Accordingly, we cannot add further endings or derivational morphemes to the words since we only kan build on on the basis of a singular wordform. So to add endings like N{± ni} or N{± nut} we must construct a base form.
Even though we cannot say *kalaalerpassuaq, only kalaalerpassuit, we still need to base 'at many Greenlanders' upon kalaaleq +PASSUAQ+ni = kalaalerpassuarni and 'to many grammar schools' likewise on ilinniarnertuunngorniarfik+PASSUAQ+nut = ilinniarnertuunngorniarfippassuarnut.
It was the same phenomenon we had in arfineq-pingasuinnarnik ukioqarpoq. N{±nik} cannot be added to a word with plural endings so we need to go via the singular arfineq-pingasoq-INNAQ+nik to make it to the right word for 'only 8 years' arfineq-pingasuinnarnik ukioqarpoq.
You know the derivational morpheme N+SUAQ from words such as Kangerlussuaq (kangerluk+SUAQ). It takes part in today's lesson in the chain of morphemes N+PAK=SUAQ. It is a little complicated but since it is widely used you need to have a somehow good understanding of it already now. Try to accept only a half-spoken truth in this phase of your learning, namely that the morpheme basically has two different shapes without actively trying to learn when it puts on which of its forms.
In certain contexts N+SUAQ is SUK and in other it is SUAQ. We say
"there is a big university" ilisimatusarfik+SUAQ-QAR{+vuq} ilisimatusarfissuaqarpoq
"this is a big university" ilisimatusarfik+SUK-U{+vuq} ilisimatusarfissuuvoq.
©
2011 Per Langgård. May not be reproduced! p.