This chapter will pick up and try to tie loose ends in your present knowledge of verbs. The chapter will add very little news but will repeat almost everything with connection to verbs practically and theoretically
Verbs have different shapes depending on what they will do/ how they will function in the sentece. This is called the verbal moods. This far you have seen 4 out of the total of 8 moods we have in Greenlandic:
Indicative (declarative mood) is used to convey a mesage: 'You come', 'The moon is made from a green cheese' and 'Elvis is not dead'. In Greenlandic we also use the indicative mood to ask questions with 1. person subject.
Ilinniartissinnaanngilassi 'I cannot teach you'
Marlunnik erneqarpoq 'He has two sons'
Ilinniartissavassi? 'Shall I teach you?'
Interrogative is used for asking questions to 2. person or about 3. persons. 'Do you come?' 'Is the moon made from a green cheese?' 'Isn't Elvis dead?'
Ilinniartissinnaanngiliuk? 'Can't you teach him?'
Marlunnik erneqarpa? 'Does he have two sons?'
Participle is used among other uses in subordinate that-sentences whenever the main clause and the subordinate sentences have different subjects. '(I suppose,) that you will come', '(she thinks,) that the moon is made from a green cheese', (somebody says,) that Elvis is not dead'.
Isumaqarpunga Elvis amerlasuunik meeraqartoq 'I think that Elvis has lots of children'
Siunnersuutigivaa uanga ilissi ilinniartissagissi 'He suggested that I should teach you'
Contemporative mood is used whenever the same subject act in more than one verb '(You came) driving a car' and (Elvis announces,) that he is not dead'
Oqarpunga amerlasuunik meeraqarlunga 'I say that I have lots of children'
Siunnersuutigivaa nammineq ilinniartissallusi 'He suggested to teach you himself'
Some verbs are transitive. It means that we from the ending get two pieces of information namely who the 'actor (the subject)' is and who/ what is the target (the object) of the action. The endings contain two pieces of information.
Other verbs are intransitive which means that we get one and only one piece of information namely about who the actor is.
Normally, you are never in doubt. asannippunga 'I am in love' is only a statement about myself not about who the loved one is. asannippunga is intransitive.
Nuliara asavara 'I love my wife'on the other hand tells us both who the lover is and who the beloved one is. asavara accordingly is transitive.
Beware of a typical mistake: Verbs build with morphemes as N-qar or N-LIRI "wrap up" the object inside the verb. They often get a transitive translation but that does not make them transitive in Greenlandic.
Actually, the logic it is not very far from English compounds and noun phrases like 'he is a car owner'. It is intransitive whereas 'he owns lots of car' Bilerpassuit pigivai is transitive.
There are 6 possible subjects and 6 possible objects in the indicative mood. Theoretically, 36 combinations are at hand. In practice, though, combinations with first person in both subject and object or second person in both subject and object (I-me, I-us, you-you Sg, you-you Pl, we-me, we-us, you Pl-you Sg, and you Pl-you Pl) are not used but expressed using endings of the intransitive system. You therefore only need to learn 28 endings1.
Here are some examples of the five transitive endings you learned this far:
atorpaa - he uses it
atulaassavaa - he will use it a little
atussagaluarpaa - he should actually have used it
ilinniartippaannga - they teach me
ilinniartikkaluarpaannga - they actually taught med
ilinniartilaartarpaannga - they taught me a little (more than one time)
taasarpaat - they name him (something-mik)
taavaat - they mentioned it
taasimassavaat - they must have mentioned it
sammisarisarparsi - You deal with it (repeatedly)
sammisarilaassavarsi - You will deal a little with it
sammisarilaaraluarparsi - You actually dealt a little with it
eqqaamavassi - I remember you
eqqaamassavassi - I will remember you
eqqaamagaluarpassi - I actually remember you
Vb+GALUAR basically means to Vb, but .. GALUAR adds some kind of reservation to the verbal contents so that one normally expects the following meaning to be 'but on the other hand/ in vain/ or the like'
nuliaqaraluarpunga (but now I am most likely divorced/ maybe widower/maybe she just does not care about me)
ilinniartikkaluarpassi (but you are still ignorant students),
Vb-SSA=GALUAR a frequent combination meaning 'ought to'
ilinniassagaluarpunga (which I obviously do not do)
Vb-LAAR means Vb a little. In connection with interrogative and imperative LAAR often means 'just/ would you mind'
atulaarsinnaavara? 'Would you mind me borrowing it?'
sulilaartarpunga 'I work a little (repeatedly)'
N-LIRI to work with N/ to deal with N.
qarasaasialerivunga 'I work with computers'
inatsisilerisoq 'lawyer ' (inatsisit means 'laws')
Pinngortitaleriffik 'The Nature Institute (in Nuuk)' (pinngortitaq means 'nature' and VIK 'place where one Vb'
Vb+NIQ forms nouns meaning 'the act of Vb-ing'.
meeraaneq 'meeraaneq' (meeraq-U+NIQ)
qallunaajuneq 'the thing to be Danish/ Danishness'
sulineq 'the act of working/ a work'
N-NNGUR to become N. Note that the morpheme NEVER means 'become/ get/ be adjective or verbal'. Always 'turn/ become N'.
nunanngorpoq 'it turned land'
ilinniartitsisunngorpugut 'we became teachers'
kalaalinngorsaaneq 'Greenlandization' (kalaaleq-NNGUR+SAA+NIQ)2
N-QAR means 'to have N' when used with a subject. Without a stated subject N-QAR creates meaning of the type 'there is .. '. Remember that complements and everything that translates into adjectives in English must be instrumental case.
illoqarpunga 'I have a house'
Qaqortumi illoqarpoq 'There are houses in Qaqortoq'
Vb+SIMA has a rather unsteady meaning in modern Greenlandic. Basically SIMA means 'the lasting result of Vb'. Hence ilinniarpunga mearns 'I study' whereas ilinniarsimavunga means 'I am educated' and iserpunga means 'to come in' whereas isersimavunga means 'I am indoor'. But in modern Greenlandic - no doubt partly because of influence from translation to and from Danish with a mandatory past tense - SIMA gradually has come to be a sort of past tense. This is, though, highly controversial and often gives rise to heated debates.
Vb+SIMA=SSA is a frequent combination meaning 'assumption '
oqarpoq atorsimallugu 'he said that he had used it'
nuussimavugut 'we have moved (=we now live somewhere else)'
ilinniartitsisuusimassavoq 'he must be a teacher (I presume)'
Vb-SSA is among the most used of all derivational morphemes. As mentioned already Greenlandic has no mandatory marking of past tense in contrast to English (sulivunga means according to context both 'I work' and 'Iworked'). On the other hand future must be explicit in the stem again in contrast to English: 'I work here today and tomorrow' would NOT function in Greenlandic.
atortassavarsi 'you will use it (repeatedly)'
ilinniartissaviuk? 'Are you going to teach him?'
sulissalluni oqarpoq 'She said that she would go to work'
Vb+TAR is normally translated into 'uses to Vb' which, though, is a rather heavy-handled translation because the explanation is a little difficult. Basically TAR only means that the verbal activity takes place more than once. Whenever that is the case TAR is mandatory.
I live permanently in Finland translates as Finlandimi najugaqarpunga (that is without TAR), but four times a year I work in Nuuk. Accordingly Nuummi najugaqartarpunga (with TAR).
qarasaasiaq atortarpaat 'They (normally) use the computer'
kingulliusarpoq 'he uses to be last'
N{±i} noun in absolutive plural "owned" by 3.Sg: "his more than one"
N{±a} noun in absolutive singular "owned" by 3.Sg: "his one"
Vb{+(l)lutik} intransitive contemporative 4.Pl "they"
Vb{+Tuq} participle 3.Sg "that he"
Vb{+Tut} participle 3.Pl "that they"
Vb{+tigit} imperative 1.Pl-3.Pl "we-them"
Vb{+vakka} indicative 1.Sg-3.Pl "I-them"
Vb{+vavut} indicative 1.Pl-3.Pl "we-them"3
Vb{+(v)vut} indicative 3.Pl "they"
aleqa a boy's big sister
angaju a girl's big sister/ a boy's big brother
angut - *aŋutә a man
ani a girl's big brother
aqqalu a girl's little brother
assersuut - *assirsuutә an example
ataaseq - *ataa(t)siq 1
ator- to be used
ilaqutariit - *ilaqutariik a family
imaap- to be so
inunngor- to be born
isuma a thought/ a mind
isumaqar- to think/ to mean
kiisa finally
kisimi he alone (when subject)
manna/ makku this/ these
marluk 2
massakkut now
naja a boy's little sister
nalunar- to be difficult/ to be insecure
nuka a boy's little brother/ a girl's little sister
pingasut - *piŋasuq 3
sisamat - *sisamaq 4
taaguut - *taaguutә a title/ a term
uagut we
Vb+NIAR intend to Vb/ will Vb
Vb-NNGIT not Vb
Vb+SINNAA be able to Vb
LOKALIS+IP to be in/ on ..
N+GӘ to have object as one's N (= the object is the subject's N)
Hej, Tikaana. Tutsiuteqqippunga.
Immikkoortumi kingullermi oqaluttuarpunga Per tallimanik meeraqartoq taallugulu angajulleq, Una, Danmarkimi najugaqartoq.
Unali kisimi Danmarkimiinngilaq. Aqqalua, Thor, nukaalu, Ilona, aamma Danmarkimi ilinniarput. Thor Århus universitetimi ilinniarpoq Ilonalu Nyborgip ilinniarnertuunngorniarfiani ilinniarluni. Thor 1987-imi inunngorpoq Ilonalu 1992-imi inunngorluni. Tamarmik Nuummi inunngorput.
Sisamaat Finn 1999-imi inunngorpoq kiisalu Nuka Björn nukarliulluni 2001-imi inunngorluni.
Qallunaarpassuit isumaqarput kalaallisut ilaqutariinni taaguutit nalunalaartut. Massakkut sammisarilaarniartigit, ilaa? Imaapput:
Arnani taaguutit makku atorput: ♀angaju, ♀nuka, ♂ani, ♂aqqalu
Angutini makku atorlutik: ♂angaju, ♂nuka, ♀aleqa, ♀naja
Perip meerai assersuutigisinnaavavut. Imaappoq
UNA ataatsimik nukaqarpoq pingasunillu aqqaloqarluni. Nukaa Ilonamik ateqarpoq aqqaluilu Thorimik, Finnimik Nuka Björnimillu ateqarlutik.
THOR ataatsimik aleqaqarpoq ataatsimillu najaqarluni. Kiisalu marlunnik nukaqarpoq. Aleqaa Unamik ateqarpoq, najaa Ilonamik nukaalu Finnimik Nuka Björnimillu.
ILONA ataatsimik angajoqarpoq ataatsimillu aneqarluni. Kiisalu marlunnik aqqaloqarpoq. Angajua Unamik ateqarpoq anialu Thorimik ateqarluni. Aqqalui Finnimik Nuka Björnimillu ateqarput.
FINN marlunnik aleqaqarpoq, ataatsimik angajoqarpoq kiisalu ataatsimik nukaqarluni. Aleqai tassaapput Una aamma Ilona, angajua Thor kiisalu nukaa, Nuka Björn.
NUKA BJÖRN marlunnik aleqaqarpoq marlunnillu angajoqarluni. Aleqai4 Unamik Ilonamillu ateqarput angajuilu Thorimik Finnimillu ateqarlutik.
You have most likely wondered why -s- in ataaseq turns -ts- in ataatsimik with the ending for instrumental case. Quite a number of p-inflected nouns have this peculiarity. All nouns in question have a fricative (v, s, l, j, g, and r) as last consonant before the final /q/. This fricative becomes long whenever followed by - and only when followed by - a truncating ending that starts with a consonant.
ataaseq{-mik} ⟹ ataatsimik (m is a consonant {mik} is a truncative ending.
meeraq{-vut} ⟹ meeqqavut (v is a consonant {vut} is a truncative ending.
najugaq{-tut} ⟹ najukkatut (t is a consonant {tut} is a truncative ending.
BUT
ataaseq-NNGUR{vuq} ⟹ ataasinngorpoq (N-NNGUR is not an ending. It is a derivational morpheme.)
meeraq{+ga} ⟹ meerara ({+ga} (an ending all right, but it is not truncative)
najugaq{-a} ⟹ najugaa ({-a} is a truncative ending, but -a is a vowel, not a consonant).
Do not invest too much energy on this detail. The process is namely far from consequent in modern language. Especially in the younger generations the rules are no longer productive so that one often hears rather surprising constructions in this sort of stems.
A few high frequent words like kalaaleq, meeraq, atuagaq, iluliaq (Greenlander, child, book, ice berg) belong to this group. Because of the intensive use they retain their special feature even among young speakers that will not elsewhere speak according to the rules. It can be a little confusing but do not panic. These words are so frequent that you will learn them under all circumstances.
1and they, by the way, are so systematic that your actual ecquisition load is much lighter. The combination are to quite some degree transparent combinations of the two persons involved in the double endings.
2Vb+SAA means 'do something deliberate to Vb'
3In the modern language almost consequently NOT used as -vavut, rather in the shape of -vagut. Still, the official language board insists that -vagut is incorrect in writing.
4/a/ followed by a vowel becomes a's. There is - almost - an exeption namely whenever /ai/ is in absolute final position. There it is written as ai and closed with a long flat a-sound with a little j-sound. To avoid a typical foreigner mistake make sure you remember that Greenlandic -ai in no way sounds like cycle or high.