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Exercise 7.1: Practise the interrogative dummy su- « Greenlandic for Foreigners 2 « Learn Greenlandic

Exercise 7.1: Practise the interrogative dummy su-

Remember su- from chapter 5? su- is almost impossible to translate into idiomatic English because su- does not really mean anything. It is an interrogative dummy we use whenever we need to form questions about semantics contained in morphemes and endings as opposed to meaning contained in stems. In chapter 6 you met the sentence .. nalullugu suniarnerlunga ('not knowing what I wanted'). In the relative clause all meaning is contained in the morphemes +NIAR+NIR. That is a typical way to use su-. Translate the questions and negations hereunder. You need to use su- plus an ending and sometimes also a morphme. Push to play the audio, to check your answer, to play the solution, or to reveal the solution.

We will do nothing!
There is nothing
Was it a boy or a girl? (Use su+TAAR to a new parent.)
What way?
Where do I go?
What became of him?
What has he begun to?
As what?
I have nothing
I shall not do anything
The most what?
To where?
What do you have?
What will you do with that?
Where?
What shall we do?
What does she want?
What is your relation to him?
What kind of work does he do in Greenland?
What does she normally do?
What will I work with?
What do you do?
What does he do?
What will they do in Denmark?
Do you want a boy or a girl? (Use su+TAAR to expectant parents.)
Where is he now?
What on earth does he do? (Use su+TUQ plus clitic UNA as exclamation)
They do not do the least
There is nothing!
I do not want anything