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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.

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