Today's to-do-list contains first and foremost rather many new derivational morphemes. We will also try to mix our knowledge about participle from chapter 1 with knowledge about contemporative from chapter 2. The two moods are namely each other's complement. Finally, we will touch upon a few endings from the causative mood. Causative is the form of the verb used for expressing time clauses and causal clauses
aallartip- to start
aappaq another; number two; a partner
affaq a half
aqqanillit (*aqqanilik/ aqqaniliup) 11
aqqutigi- (aqqutigә) to have it as one's way; hence 'via' with contemporative
ingerlaannaq immediately
maani here
marluliaq (marluli(ss)aq) a twin
naammassi- to finish it
nalu- to not know it
nutserisoq a translator
oqarfigi- (uqarvigә) to say to sby
paasi- to understand it
qinnut (qinnutә) a prayer; an application
sivikip- (sivikit) to be short-termed
soqutigi- (suqutigә) to have en interest in it
su- to do ???
suliffik/ suliffiup a work
taamak this way
tulluar- to be appropriate
Tusagassiornermik Ilinniarfik the school of journalism
tusagassiortoq a journalist
tusilar- to be deaf
uannit from me; (with comparisons) than me
uannut to me
ukii- to overwinter
unip- to stop
N+GIIT each others' N
N-SSAQ an N to be
Vb-INNAR just/ simply Vb
Vb+NIKUU to have Vb in the past (or already)
Vb+NIQAR passive
Vb+NIR to wonder whether Vb; in subordinate clauses "whether Vb"
Vb+NIRU to Vb more. Translates to English comparative
Vb-QQAAR to Vb first
Vb-QQU to order sby to Vb
Vb-RIAR (with contemporative and causative) immediately upon Vb
Vb-RIIR to be done with Vb
Vb+VALLAAR to Vb too much
N{±ma} noun in relative Sg. having 1.Sg as possessor: "my N's"
N{±ni} noun in absolutive Sg. having 4.Sg as possessor: "his N"
Vb{+gakku} causative 1.Sg-3.Sg: "as I - him"
Vb{+gama} causative 1.Sg: "as I"
Vb{+(m)maŋa} causative 3.Sg-1.Sg: "as he - me"
Vb{+vaaŋa} indicative 3.Sg-1.Sg: "he - me"1
Vb{+vara} indicative 1.Sg-3.Sg: "I - him"
Qatanngutigiit tallimaavugut.
Angajora Avijaajamik ateqarpoq. Taanna Maniitsumi najugaqarpoq uannillu ukiunik aqqanilinnik angajulliulluni.
Aneqarpunga marlulissanik uannit ukiunik sisamanik angajullernik. Uusaqqak ilinniartitsisuuvoq massakkullu Ålborgimi aappanilu najugaqarput. Suersaq maaniippoq. Taanna tusilartuuvoq massakkullu suliffeqanngilaq.
Aqqaluga Aqqalumik ateqarpoq IT-Administratoriuvoq. Taanna aamma maani Nuummiippoq. Aqqalu 23-nik ukioqarpoq.
Uanga Nuummi ASK-imi atuarnikuuvunga 11. klassilu naammassigakku ingerlaannaq GU-mi maani Nuummi aallartillunga. Ukiup affaa GU-mi atuariarlunga AFS aqqutigalugu New Zealandimut ukiiartorpunga. Ukeereeramalu ingerlaannaq GU-mi atualeqqippunga.
GU naammassigakku suli nalullugu suniarnerlunga ukioq ataaseq USK-imi specialklassini ilinniartitsisooqqaarpunga. Taavalu Tusagassiornermik Ilinniarfimmi aallartippunga.
Tusagassiornermik Ilinniarfimmi ilinnialerama paasivara tusagassiortuunissara uannut tulluarpallaanngitsoq. Apriilimilu ilinniartitsisuma aamma taamak oqarfigimmanga uniinnarpunga.
Sivikitsumik Kangillinnguit Atuarfianni vikaritut sulereerlunga Radioavisimit nutserisutut sulileqquneqarama Radioavisimi sulilerpunga.
Suli Tusagassiornermik Ilinniarfimmi ilinniartuullunga Ilisimatusarfimmut qinnuteqarsimavunga oqaasilerinermik ilisimatusarnissaq soqutigigakku. Septembarimilu 2006-imi Ilisimatusarfimmi aallartippunga.
In English you handle comparison by means of adjectives and adverbs ('good', 'better', 'best', etc.). In Greenlandic adjectives do not form a part of speech at all and adverbs work rather differently from English adverbs. Instead comparison is an issue for the verbs apart from a few cases where certain nouns have some kind of innate semantics that is in itself comparative as in the example in today's text " .. uannit .. angajullernik" ('than me .. an older one').
The by far most common way to make comparison is by means of the derivational morpheme Vb+NIRU.
atorpoq - atorneruvoq 'it is in use - it is more in use'
imaappoq - imaanneruvoq 'it is so - it is more like so'
nalunarpoq - nalunarneruvoq 'it is hard - it is harder'
The something or somebody one compares to is normally preceded by 'than' in English ('She is older than me'). In Greenlandic the ablative case serves this purpose. Ablative's basic meaning is otherwise 'direction away from/ out of N'. The ablative of uanga is uannit. uannit accordingly means 'from me' as well as 'than me' depending on context.
You know already that /ә/ turns /i/ in both writing and pronunciation when followed by a consonant as in /aŋutәt/ ⟹ angutit and that it turns /a/ when followed by a vowel as in /aŋutәuvuq/ ⟹ angutaavoq.
But /ә/ causes many more problems elsewhere. For instance in one of the contemporative mood wordforms found in today's text. Contemporative has a rather straightforward structure with {llu} after vowels as in paasillugu and ilinniaqqullugu ('understanding it' and 'making her study') and {lu} after consonants as in atorlugu and ilinniartillugu ('using it' and 'teaching him'). But after the vowel /ә/ it is more complicated than that. Following our present state of knowledge the centemporative of a stem like aqqutigi- (*aqqutigә) 'has it as one's way' ought to be *aqqutigillugu2. But the correct wordform is aqqutigalugu. We will not here clarify the historical developments that shaped this deviant wordform only realize the fact that contemporative does not take {llu} but {lu} after /ә/ and that /ә/ in exactly this position becomes -a- instead of the /i/ we expected.
Causative is sometimes called 'when/because mood' because it is the mood to be used when we need to express time relations and causal relations.
In today's text there are 7 instances of causative:
11. klasse naammassigakku GU-mi aallartippunga 'When I finished 11. class I started at GU (the Greenlandic grammar school)'.
Ukeereerama atuaqqilerpunga 'When I had overwintered I began to study again'.
GU naammassigakku ilinniartitsisooqqaarpunga. 'When I finished GU I first worked as a school teacher.
.. ilinnialerama paasivara .. 'When I started to study .. I realized ..'
Taamak oqarfigimmanga uniinnarpunga ' Because she said so to me I simply quit.
Sulileqquneqarama sulilerpunga. 'When I was asked to start working I began to work.'
Oqaasilerineq soqutigigakku aallartippunga. 'Because I am interested in linguistics I started'
Passive is used in English and Greenlandic alike to change focus in a statement from the actor to the target of the action. Put another way, focus moves from the subject to the object. Accordingly, passive is only an issue in connection with transitive verbs. Peter saw me is active. The main message is that Peter does smt. The passive equivalent is I was seen by Peter with a primary message about me.
Passive is also widely used in formal language as road signs and law texts (Smoking is prohibited! and The case will be dealt with in a higher court.)
Typically, passive is formed in Greenlandic with the derivational morpheme Vb+NIQAR and the original subject put into the ablative case. Uanga taanna atorpara - Taanna uannit atorneqarpoq 'I used it - It was used by me'.
You have this far seen causative's transitive endings in shapes like Vb{+gakku} and Vb{+(m)maŋa}. You accordingly have three pieces of information included in the ending:
1. The mood is causative which means 'because Vb' or 'when Vb'
2. Who is the subject? {gakku}'s subject is 'I' and {(m)maŋa}'s subject is 'he'
3. Who is the object? {gakku}'s object is 'him' and {(m)maŋa}'s object is 'me'
One could have gone another step deeper and learned that causative is built by the modal marker {ga} or {(m)m} followed by any one of the possible 60 combinations of personal endings.
The profit of this rather theoretical approach is that once one starts to include also the conditional mood the only new thing one needs to learn is that conditional's modal marker is {gu} followed by the same3 personal endings as we know from the causative mood. 'Once I am done with it' is naammassigukku (cf. naammassigakku mearning 'because I am done with it').
Basically, the choice is yours. You can learn two times 60 ready-to-use endings or you can choose to learn 60 endings plus two modal markers that you will be able to fit together on the fly.
But for the moment you need to know the modal marker {ga} because it has a little deviant form after Vb-NNGIT. Traditionally, {ga} used a variety in the shape of {na} immediately after negations. 'Because I did not use it' (ator-NNGIT+gakku) accordingly is NOT *atunngikkakku as expected but atunnginnakku. Observe that this behaviour is absolutely specific for causative's {ga}. It does not apply anywhere else. It is as expected (ator-NNGIT+maŋa) atunngimmanga (because he did not use me) and atunngikkukku (if I do not use it).
But again, do not invest too much energy in this detail. As with most other exception rules in modern Greenlandic this one too is on its heels. One hears the regular wordforms in young language all the time so make sure to tell yourself over and over again that an atunngikkakku that makes it out of your mouth under all circumstances is a hundred times better than an atunnginnakku that stays in your head!
In chapter 3 you saw that the 3.Sg participle ('that he') takes the ending Vb{+Tuq} where {T..} tells us that the first consonant in the ending is variable. The rule is that T ⟹ /s/ when added to vowel, but becomes /t/ when added to a consonant.
This rule is consequent and without exceptions so this is again absolutely a trifle you must not worry too much about.
After the socalled privative morpheme Vb-IT (like English un- in 'unseen' and 'undone') and the negation Vb-NNGIT a minor process in central West Greenlandic (not in the South and the North) causes the second /t/ to be pronounced with a slight aspiration. Unfortunately, this aspiration is reflected in orthography giving rise to an extra problem in the L2 class room.
This is the reason why we write the city name as Maniitsoq. But take care: The proper pronunciation is NOT *[ma niit soq] rather [ma niit tsoq]. The C1C2 rule certainly works, so we have two /t/-s just that the latter is closed by a little s-sound.
Therefore you still have only one rule to learn by heart about T, namely that T turns /t/after a consonant. Then you may safely form words straight forwardly as ajor-NNGIT+Tuq ⇒ *ajunngittoq. You will under all circumstances be understood in spite of the little "sin" that standard orthography wants you to write ajunngitsoq.
Did you wonder why 'my big sister' in Tika's story is angajora and not angajuga as one would expect with the stem being angaju?
It is so that p-stems in vowels tend to have an alternative form with a final -q that varies rather freely with the "normal" form according to dialect and/ or individual style. Almost all endings with p-stems are truncating which means that we cannot tell whether angajup or angajumut are formed on the basis of angaju ({aŋaju-p} and {aŋaju-mut}) or on the basis of angajoq ({aŋajuq-p} and {aŋajuq-mut}). It is only with the ending N{+ga} there is a difference.
The answer, thus, is that you may safely use both forms.
1In this chapter this ending is only used in the exercises
2which as a matter of facts is often heard in young language and child language.
3There is a little bit of variation, but too little to really contradict the uniformity.