Inuit grammar
Encyclopedia
The Inuit language
, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, has a very rich morphological system, in which a succession of different morpheme
s are added to root words to indicate things that, in languages like English, would require several words to express. (See also: Agglutinative language
and Polysynthetic language
) All Inuit language words begin with a root morpheme to which other morphemes are suffixed. The language has hundreds of distinct suffixes, in some dialects as many as 700. Fortunately for the learners, the language has a highly regular morphology. Although the rules are many, and sometimes very complicated, they do not have exceptions in the sense that English and other Indo-European languages
do.
This system makes words very long, and potentially unique. For example, in Nunavut
Inuktitut
:
This long word is composed of a root word tusaa- – to hear – followed by five suffixes:
Note the consonant sandhi (see Inuit language phonology and phonetics): The /q/ from -tsiaq- followed by the /j/ from -junnaq- becomes /r/, a single consonant taking its point of articulation from /q/ and its manner of articulation from /j/. The /q/ from -junnaq- is assimilated into the /ŋŋ/ of -nngit-, because Inuktitut forbids triple length consonants, and because the morphophonological rules attached to -nngit- require it to delete any consonant that comes before it.
This sort of word construction is pervasive in Inuit language and makes it very unlike English. In one large Inuktitut
corpus – the Nunavut
Hansard
– 92% of all words appear only once, in contrast to a small percentage in most English corpora of similar size. This makes the application of Zipf's law quite difficult.
Furthermore, the notion of a part of speech can be somewhat complicated in Inuit language. Fully inflected verbs can be interpreted as nouns. The word ilisaijuq can be interpreted as a fully inflected verb – "he studies" – but can also be interpreted as a noun: "student".
Because of the language's rich and complicated morphology, this article can present only a limited and unsystematic sample of its features. It is based largely on the Inuktitut dialects of north Baffin Island and central Nunavut. The morphology and syntax of Inuit language varies to some degree between dialects, but the basic principles will generally apply to all of them and to some degree to Yupik as well.
Every fully inflected Inuktitut verb can act alone as a proposition. No other words are required to form a syntactically correct sentence.
This section will only cover two of the most common sets of endings for these two verb classes and a small selection of verbal modifiers. Inuktitut has a large and diverse set of verbal inflexions, of which this article can only cover a small portion designed to give some sense of how the Inuktitut language works.
The indicative is the simplest form of the verb in Inuktitut, and for state verbs - verbs indicating a condition or a situation - this form indicates the present tense: The condition or situation is presently the case. For action verbs, it indicates that the action has recently been completed, mixing tense and aspect. Inuktitut verbs are divided into state verbs and action verbs. However, the distinction may not match how non-Inuktitut speakers would categorise verbs. For example, the verb root pisuk-, meaning "to be walking" - is a state verb in Inuktitut.
When the verb root ends in a consonant, the suffixes that indicate the grammatical person all begin with t. For example, pisuk- - to be walking - is conjugated as follows:
Verb roots that end in a vowel have suffixes that start with a j. For example, ani- - to go out:
Note that Inuktitut has a fully productive dual number
, present in all three persons.
This way, one can very compactly pose and answer simple yes/no questions:
The object of a non-specific verb takes one of the suffixes below, depending on its number:
A film-inspired
example using the verb taku- - to see - and inuviniq - dead person:
To say "I see the dead person" or "I see the dead people" requires a specific verb, which is described in the section below.
Specific verb suffixes used after consonants:
Note that the suffixes in this table cannot be used for reflexive verbs. That will be discussed separately.
Specific verb suffixes used after vowels:
Specific verb suffixes used after consonants:
After vowels:
After consonants:
The subject of a specific verb takes the following suffixes, depending on its grammatical number:
All of the suffixes above delete any consonant that immediately precedes them. For example, qajaq becomes qajaup in the singular, qajaak in the dual, and qajait in the plural when it is the subject of a specific verb.
So, as an example:
Many action verbs that specifically involve an actor performing an action on another are specific verbs that take the suffix -si- in order to become non-specific verbs:
Many verbs of emotion alternate between the suffixes -suk- and -gi- to change whether or not they are specific:
This is important when attributing an emotion to a person without designating the cause. To do so, Inuktitut always uses the non-specific form:
is a verb which must have both an object and a subject, but where, in some context, both the object and the subject are identical. In Inuktitut, this situation is expressed by using a specific verb but by affixing a non-specific ending to it.
First, many secondary structures use other classes of verb suffixes that those used in main clauses. This article cannot cover the whole of Inuktitut morphology, especially since each class of inflexion has its own set of non-specific and specific endings and they vary significantly from dialect to dialect. The examples below are based on the North Baffin dialect.
The set of morphemes used to indicate the other third person is sometimes called the third person different, but is also often called the fourth person. This additional grammatical person
is a pervasive feature of Inuktitut.
is used to link propositions that follow logically. It is much more broadly used in Inuktitut than similar structures are in English. The causative is one of the most important ways of connecting two clauses in Inuktitut:
or the conditional mood
in the main clause:
endings indicate that two propositions routinely occur together. In English, this is expressed with words like usually, often, generally and whenever. It generally involves using an additional marker in the main clause to indicate frequency:
suffixes express uncertainty or disbelief about a proposition:
Verb modifiers=
This section is in progress
In addition to root verb morphemes and inflexions to indicate the number and person of the arguments, Inuktitut has a large inventory of morphemes that modify the verb and may be placed between the root morpheme and inflexions, or at the end of the inflected verb. In pedagogic and linguistic literature on Inuktitut, these infix morphemes are often called verb chunks. These modifiers indicate tense, aspect, manner and a variety of functions that in English require auxiliary verbs, adverbs, or other structures.
This section can only list a small selection of the many verb chunks, in order to give a sense for how the system works:
tend to make tense distinctions in terms of before or after some reference event, Inuktitut makes a number of somewhat fuzzy distinctions depending on how far into the past or the future the event took place. In English, this distinction requires additional words to place the event in time, but in Inuktitut the tense marker itself carries much of that information.
. However, ergativity in its most clearly defined instances is primarily about transitive and intransitive verbs. This dichotomy is not identical to the specific/non-specific verb distinction in Inuktitut, since Inuktitut usage is also concerned with the definiteness of the objects of verb,
Consequently, the application of the notion of ergativity to Inuktitut, and to many other languages, is somewhat controversial. Regardless, by analogy with more conventionally ergative languages, the -up, -k, -it endings described above are often called ergative suffixes which are taken to be indicative of the ergative case, while the -mik, -rnik, -nik endings (see Non-specific verbs - Objects) are called accusative
. This usage is often seen in linguistics literature describing Inuktitut, and sometimes in pedagogic literature and dictionaries, but remains a quite foreign vocabulary to most Inuit.
Webpages
Inuit language
The Inuit language is traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and to some extent in the subarctic in Labrador. The related Yupik languages are spoken in western and southern Alaska and Russian Far East, particularly the Diomede Islands, but is severely endangered in Russia today and...
, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, has a very rich morphological system, in which a succession of different morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s are added to root words to indicate things that, in languages like English, would require several words to express. (See also: Agglutinative language
Agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
and Polysynthetic language
Polysynthetic language
In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes. Whereas isolating languages have a low morpheme-to-word ratio, polysynthetic languages have extremely high morpheme-to-word ratios.Not all languages can be...
) All Inuit language words begin with a root morpheme to which other morphemes are suffixed. The language has hundreds of distinct suffixes, in some dialects as many as 700. Fortunately for the learners, the language has a highly regular morphology. Although the rules are many, and sometimes very complicated, they do not have exceptions in the sense that English and other Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
do.
This system makes words very long, and potentially unique. For example, in Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
Inuktitut
Inuktitut
Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...
:
- tusaatsiarunnanngittualuujunga ᑐᓵᑦᓯᐊᕈᓐᓇᓐᓐᒡᒌᑦᑐᐊᓘᔪᓐᓐᒐ
- I can't hear very well.
This long word is composed of a root word tusaa- – to hear – followed by five suffixes:
-tsiaq- well -junnaq- be able to -nngit- not -tualuu- very much -junga 1st pers. singular present indicative non-specific
Note the consonant sandhi (see Inuit language phonology and phonetics): The /q/ from -tsiaq- followed by the /j/ from -junnaq- becomes /r/, a single consonant taking its point of articulation from /q/ and its manner of articulation from /j/. The /q/ from -junnaq- is assimilated into the /ŋŋ/ of -nngit-, because Inuktitut forbids triple length consonants, and because the morphophonological rules attached to -nngit- require it to delete any consonant that comes before it.
This sort of word construction is pervasive in Inuit language and makes it very unlike English. In one large Inuktitut
Inuktitut
Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...
corpus – the Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
Hansard
Hansard
Hansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
– 92% of all words appear only once, in contrast to a small percentage in most English corpora of similar size. This makes the application of Zipf's law quite difficult.
Furthermore, the notion of a part of speech can be somewhat complicated in Inuit language. Fully inflected verbs can be interpreted as nouns. The word ilisaijuq can be interpreted as a fully inflected verb – "he studies" – but can also be interpreted as a noun: "student".
Because of the language's rich and complicated morphology, this article can present only a limited and unsystematic sample of its features. It is based largely on the Inuktitut dialects of north Baffin Island and central Nunavut. The morphology and syntax of Inuit language varies to some degree between dialects, but the basic principles will generally apply to all of them and to some degree to Yupik as well.
Verbs in main clauses
Inuktitut verbs fall into two major categories with different morphological properties: non-specific verbs and specific verbs. Many verbs belong in both categories, and can take either set of endings depending on the type of information about the verb's arguments that speakers intend to communicate. Others are restricted to one category or require a morphological change in order to move between categories.Every fully inflected Inuktitut verb can act alone as a proposition. No other words are required to form a syntactically correct sentence.
This section will only cover two of the most common sets of endings for these two verb classes and a small selection of verbal modifiers. Inuktitut has a large and diverse set of verbal inflexions, of which this article can only cover a small portion designed to give some sense of how the Inuktitut language works.
Non-specific verbs
Non-specific verbs are verbs that either are intransitive (they have no direct object), or have an indefinite noun as their object. In English, an indefinite noun is marked by the lack of the article the or, if the noun be singular (and countable) the article a(n). In Inuktitut, when it is the object of a verb, it is distinguished by the use of a non-specific verb and particular suffix described below. A definite noun, in contrast, requires the use of a specific verb when it is the object of a verb.Non-specific indicative conjugation
As a general rule, a correctly formed Inuktitut verb must start with a root morpheme and end with a suffix that indicates the grammatical person of its subject:- quviasuktunga - I am happy
- quviasuk- - to be happy
- -tunga - 1st person singular ("I")
- anijuq - she/he/it has just now gone out.
- ani- - to go out
- -juq - 3rd person singular
The indicative is the simplest form of the verb in Inuktitut, and for state verbs - verbs indicating a condition or a situation - this form indicates the present tense: The condition or situation is presently the case. For action verbs, it indicates that the action has recently been completed, mixing tense and aspect. Inuktitut verbs are divided into state verbs and action verbs. However, the distinction may not match how non-Inuktitut speakers would categorise verbs. For example, the verb root pisuk-, meaning "to be walking" - is a state verb in Inuktitut.
- pisuktunga - I am walking. (right now)
When the verb root ends in a consonant, the suffixes that indicate the grammatical person all begin with t. For example, pisuk- - to be walking - is conjugated as follows:
Singular Dual Plural First person pisuktunga
(I am walking)pisuktuguk
(we [two] are walking)pisuktugut
(we [more than two] are walking)Second person pisuktutit
(you [sing] are walking)pisuktusik
(you [two] are walking)pisuktusi
(you [more than two] are walking)Third person pisuktuq
(he/she/it is walking)pisuktuuk
(they [two] are walking)pisuktut
(they [more than two] are walking)
Verb roots that end in a vowel have suffixes that start with a j. For example, ani- - to go out:
Singular Dual Plural First person anijunga
(I have just gone out)anijuguk
(we [two] have just gone out)anijugut
(we [more than two] have just gone out)Second person anijutit
(you [sing] have just gone out)anijusik
(you [two] have just gone out)anijusi
(you [more than two] have just gone out)Third person anijuq
(he/she/it has just gone out)anijuuk
(they [two] have just gone out)anijut
(they [more than two] have just gone out)
Note that Inuktitut has a fully productive dual number
Dual (grammatical number)
Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...
, present in all three persons.
| Verb roots ending in a consonant | Verb roots ending in a vowel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alternative form
There is an alternative form of the above conjugation which is used in different ways and to different degrees depending on dialect. Instead of starting with t after a consonant and j after a vowel, this form starts with p after a consonant and v after a vowel. The exact difference varies from dialect to dialect. In western dialects, including Inuinnaqtun and Inupiatun, only the t/j forms are ever used for statements and the p/v form is rarely if ever heard. In Greenland, only the p/v form is used. In the central and eastern Canadian dialects, both are forms are used.| Verb roots ending in a consonant | Verb roots ending in a vowel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Interrogatives
There are additional p/v forms used in Nunavut to indicate interrogative statements - asking questions - although they may indicate other subtle distinctions of aspect. When they are used to ask questions, the last vowel may be doubled to indirectly indicate rising pitch. So, the question "Are we there yet?" can be written as Tikippita? (tikip- - to arrive, and for -pita see the table below) but may also be written as Tikippitaa?| Verb roots ending in a consonant | Verb roots ending in a vowel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This way, one can very compactly pose and answer simple yes/no questions:
Quviasukpit?
(or: Quviasukpiit?)Are you happy? Ii, quviasuktunga. Yes, I'm happy.
Subjects
The subject of a non-specific verb has no special morphological mark:Piita anijuq Peter just went out. Lui quviasuktuq Louis is happy
Objects
The object of a non-specific verb must end in a suffix that indicates its syntactic role:- Piitamik takuvit? Do you see Peter?
The object of a non-specific verb takes one of the suffixes below, depending on its number:
Indefinite suffixes Singular -mik /m/ nasalises a preceding consonant Dual -rnik deletes any preceding consonant and doubles the length of the preceding vowel Plural -nik /n/ nasalises a preceding consonant
A film-inspired
The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear , a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist who tries to help him...
example using the verb taku- - to see - and inuviniq - dead person:
Singular: Inuvinirmik takujunga I see a dead person. Dual: Inuviniirnik takujunga I see two dead people. Plural: Inuvinirnik takujunga I see dead people.
To say "I see the dead person" or "I see the dead people" requires a specific verb, which is described in the section below.
Specific verbs
Specific verbs - verbs whose objects are definite as opposed to indefinite - take suffixes that indicate the grammatical person of both the subject and the object, but not their grammatical number.Specific indicative conjugation
Specific verb suffixes used after vowels:| Subject | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Second person | Third person | ||
| Object | First person | -jarma | -jaanga | |
| Second person | -jagit | -jaatit | ||
| Third person | -jara | -jait | -janga | |
Specific verb suffixes used after consonants:
| Subject | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Second person | Third person | ||
| Object | First person | -tarma | -taanga | |
| Second person | -tagit | -taatit | ||
| Third person | -tara | -tait | -tanga | |
Note that the suffixes in this table cannot be used for reflexive verbs. That will be discussed separately.
Alternative form
As with non-specific verbs, specific verbs have an alternate v/p form used to the exclusion of j/t forms in Greenland, to some extent interchangeably in Nunavut, and not at all in the west:Specific verb suffixes used after vowels:
| Subject | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Second person | Third person | ||
| Object | First person | -varma | -vaanga | |
| Second person | -vagit | -vaatit | ||
| Third person | -vara | -vait | -vanga | |
Specific verb suffixes used after consonants:
| Subject | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Second person | Third person | ||
| Object | First person | -parma | -paanga | |
| Second person | -pagit | -paatit | ||
| Third person | -para | -pait | -panga | |
Interrogatives
The specific interrogative is also sometimes used to indicate conditional forms or other aspects. It overlaps heavily with the v/p alternative form described above:After vowels:
| Subject | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Second person | Third person | ||
| Object | First person | -vinga | -vaanga | |
| Second person | -vagit | -vaatit | ||
| Third person | -vigu/-vara | -viuk | -vauk | |
After consonants:
| Subject | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person | Second person | Third person | ||
| Object | First person | -pinga | -paanga | |
| Second person | -pagit | -paatit | ||
| Third person | -pigu/-para | -piuk | -pauk | |
Subjects
The subject of a specific verb requires a specific suffix to indicate its syntactic role:- Piitaup takujaatit Peter sees you
The subject of a specific verb takes the following suffixes, depending on its grammatical number:
Singular -up /u/ disappears when it is preceded by a double vowel Dual -k doubles the preceding vowel, if it is not already double Plural -it /i/ disappears when it is preceded by a double vowel
All of the suffixes above delete any consonant that immediately precedes them. For example, qajaq becomes qajaup in the singular, qajaak in the dual, and qajait in the plural when it is the subject of a specific verb.
So, as an example:
Paliisiup takujaatit A policeman sees you. Paliisiik takujaatit Two policemen see you. Paliisiit takujaatit Some policemen (more than two) see you.
Objects
The object of a specific verb needs no particular suffix at all. Thus, we can contrast Inuviniq takujara - I see the dead person - with the table for non-specific verbs above. Continuing the example from above:Piitaup paliisi takupauk? Does Peter see the policeman? Aakka, paliisinik Piita takujuq. No, Peter sees some policemen.
Changing verb classes
Some verbs are automatically both specific and non-specific verbs, depending only on which suffixes they receive. The verb taku- - to see - is one example. However, other verbs require an additional suffix to shift classes.Many action verbs that specifically involve an actor performing an action on another are specific verbs that take the suffix -si- in order to become non-specific verbs:
Specific: Qukiqtara qimmiq I just shot the dog. Non-specific: Qukiqsijunga qimmirmik I just shot a dog.
Many verbs of emotion alternate between the suffixes -suk- and -gi- to change whether or not they are specific:
Non-specific: Ilirasuktunga ilisaijimik I'm intimidated by a teacher Specific: Iliragijara ilisaiji I'm intimidated by the teacher
This is important when attributing an emotion to a person without designating the cause. To do so, Inuktitut always uses the non-specific form:
- Kuppiasuktunga I'm afraid
Reflexive verbs
A reflexive verbReflexive verb
In grammar, a reflexive verb is a verb whose semantic agent and patient are the same. For example, the English verb to perjure is reflexive, since one can only perjure oneself...
is a verb which must have both an object and a subject, but where, in some context, both the object and the subject are identical. In Inuktitut, this situation is expressed by using a specific verb but by affixing a non-specific ending to it.
Specific: Nanuq qukiqtara I just shot the polar bear Non-specific: Nanurmik qukiqsijunga I just shot a polar bear Reflexive: Qukiqtunga I just shot myself
Verbs in secondary clauses
A verb that has been fully inflected as described above is a complete proposition able to stand on its own. However, when clauses are linked in Inuktitut, a number of other morphosyntactic phenomena come into play.First, many secondary structures use other classes of verb suffixes that those used in main clauses. This article cannot cover the whole of Inuktitut morphology, especially since each class of inflexion has its own set of non-specific and specific endings and they vary significantly from dialect to dialect. The examples below are based on the North Baffin dialect.
Fourth person inflection
In secondary clauses, third person inflexions must make a distinction between instances where the two clauses have the same subject and those where the subject is different. In English, the sentence "He is leaving because he is tired" is ambiguous unless you know whether or not the two "he"s refer to different people. In Inuktitut, in contrast, this situation is clearly marked:- Aullaqtuq taqagama.
aullaq- + -tuq taqa- + -gama to leave + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific to be tired + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific causative - He1 is leaving because he1 is tired
- Aullaqtuq taqangmat.
aullaq- + -tuq taqa- + -ngmat to leave + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific to be tired + 4th pers. sg. non-specific causative - He1 is leaving because he2 is tired
The set of morphemes used to indicate the other third person is sometimes called the third person different, but is also often called the fourth person. This additional grammatical person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
is a pervasive feature of Inuktitut.
Causative
The causativeCausative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
is used to link propositions that follow logically. It is much more broadly used in Inuktitut than similar structures are in English. The causative is one of the most important ways of connecting two clauses in Inuktitut:
- Qannirmat qainngittunga
qanniq- + -mat qai- + -nngit- + -tunga to snow + 4th pers. non-specific causative to come + not + 1st pers. sg. non-specific - Because it is snowing, I am not coming.
Conditional & subjunctive
This structure has a meaning closer to an "if... then..." sentence in English than the kind of structure usually referred to as "conditional". It generally involves using an additional marker of the future tenseFuture tense
In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
or the conditional mood
Conditional mood
In linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
in the main clause:
- Qaiguvit niriniaqpit?
qai- + -guvit niri- + -niaq- + -pit to come + 2nd pers. sg. non-specific conditional to eat + future tense + 2nd pers. sg. non-specific interrogative - If you come, will you eat?
- Qanniqpat aninajanngittunga
qanniq- + -pat ani- + -najaq- + -nngit- + -tunga to snow + 4th pers. sg. non-specific conditional to go out + conditional mood + not + 1st pers. sg. non-specific - If it were snowing, I wouldn't go out.
Frequentative
The frequentativeFrequentative
In grammar, a frequentative form of a word is one which indicates repeated action. The frequentative form can be considered a separate, but not completely independent word, called a frequentative...
endings indicate that two propositions routinely occur together. In English, this is expressed with words like usually, often, generally and whenever. It generally involves using an additional marker in the main clause to indicate frequency:
- Kaakkaangami niriqattaqtuq
kaak- + -kaangami niri- + -qattaq- + -tuq to be hungry + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific frequentative to eat + usually + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific - When he's hungry, he eats.
Dubitative
The dubitativeDubitative mood
Dubitative mood is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages, that indicates that the statement is dubious, doubtful, or uncertain. It may subsist as a separate morphological category, as in Bulgarian, or else as a category of use of another form, as of the conditional mood of...
suffixes express uncertainty or disbelief about a proposition:
- Naalangmangaarmitit nalujunga
naalak- + -mangaarmitit nalu- + -junga to listen + 3rd pers. subject 2nd pers. object specific dubitative to not know + 1st pers. non-specific - I don't know whether or not she listens to you.
Verb modifiers=
This section is in progress
In addition to root verb morphemes and inflexions to indicate the number and person of the arguments, Inuktitut has a large inventory of morphemes that modify the verb and may be placed between the root morpheme and inflexions, or at the end of the inflected verb. In pedagogic and linguistic literature on Inuktitut, these infix morphemes are often called verb chunks. These modifiers indicate tense, aspect, manner and a variety of functions that in English require auxiliary verbs, adverbs, or other structures.
This section can only list a small selection of the many verb chunks, in order to give a sense for how the system works:
Modifiers of manner
- -nngit- - negates the verb
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant.
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quviasunngittunga quviasuk- + -nngit- + -tunga to be happy not 1st pers. sg. I am not happy.
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sananngittuq sana- + -nngit- + -tuq to work, to be employed not 3rd pers. sg. He doesn't work. (= He is unemployed.)
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- -luaq- - excessively
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant.
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sanaluaqtuq sana- + -luaq- + -tuq to work, to be employed excessively 3rd pers. sg. He works too much.
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siniluaqtutit sinik- + -luaq- + -tutit to sleep excessively 2nd pers. sg. You sleep too much.
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- -galuaq- - although, but
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- N.B.: This morpheme undergoes consonant sandhi:
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Preceding letter context Form Example vowel -galuaq- anigaluaqtunga ani- + -galuaq- + -tunga to go out + although + 1st pers. sg. Even though I just went out... ...k -kaluaq- quviasukkaluaqtuq quviasuk- + -galuaq- + -tuq to be happy although 3rd pers. sg. Although she is happy... ...t -kaluaq-
changes the t into kqanninngikkaluaqtuq qanniq- + -nngit- + -galuaq- + -tuq to snow not although 3rd pers. sg. Although it isn't snowing... ...q -raluaq-
deletes the qqanniraluaqtuq qanniq- + -galuaq- + -tuq to snow although 3rd pers. sg. Although it is snowing...
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- Consequently one can say:
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Qanniqlaunngikkaluaqtuq aninngittunga. qanniq- + -lauq- + -nngit- + -galuaq- + -tuq ani- + -nngit- + -tunga to snow excessively not although 3rd pers. sg. to go out not 1st pers. sg. Even though it's not snowing a great deal, I'm not going out.
Modifiers of tense
While Indo-European languagesIndo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
tend to make tense distinctions in terms of before or after some reference event, Inuktitut makes a number of somewhat fuzzy distinctions depending on how far into the past or the future the event took place. In English, this distinction requires additional words to place the event in time, but in Inuktitut the tense marker itself carries much of that information.
- -laaq- - future, tomorrow or later
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant.
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uqaqlaaqtara uqaq- + -laaq- + -tara to talk later, after today 1st pers. subject 3rd pers object specific I'll talk to him some other time.
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- -niaq- - later today
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- N.B.: This morpheme nasalises a preceding consonant.
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tikimniaqtuq tikip- + -niaq- + -tuq to arrive later today 3rd pers. sg. non-specific He is arriving later.
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- -liq- - in process, right now
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant. When applied to a state verb, it emphasises that the state holds at the present moment. For action verbs, it means that the action is taking place right now, instead of having just finished.
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qangatasuu miliqtuq qangatasuu mil- + -liq- + -tuq airplane to land, to touch down right now 3rd pers. sg. non-specific The airplane is landing.
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- -rataaq- - immediate past, a moment ago, no more than a few seconds
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant.
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isumarataaqtunga isuma- + -rataaq- + -tunga to think just a moment ago 1st pers. sg. non-specific I was just thinking
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- -qqau- - just now, a few minutes ago
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant.
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tusaaqqaunngittagit tusaa- + -qqau- + -nngit- + -tagit to hear just now not 1st pers. subject 2nd pers object specific I didn't hear you just now
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- -lauq- - more remote past, yesterday or earlier, up to perhaps a year
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant.
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Iglumik niuvialauqtunga iglu + -mik niuviaq- + -lauq- + -tunga house accusative sg. to purchase recently, in the last year 1st pers. sg. non-specific I bought a house recently
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- -lauqsima- - remote past, several years or more ago
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- N.B.: This morpheme deletes a preceding consonant.
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Inuktitummik ilisailauqsimajunga inukitut + -mik ilisai- + -lauqsima- + -junga inuktitut accusative sg. to study some years ago 1st pers. sg. non-specific I studied Inuktitut some time ago.
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Ergativity in Inuktitut
Inuktitut marks the subject of a non-specific verb and the object of a specific verb in the same way - the absence of a specific morphological marker - and marks the subject of a specific verb and the object of a non-specific verb with particular morphological elements. This kind of morphosyntactic structure is often called an ergative structureErgative-absolutive language
An ergative–absolutive language is a language that treats the argument of an intransitive verb like the object of a transitive verb, but differently from the agent of a transitive verb.-Ergative vs...
. However, ergativity in its most clearly defined instances is primarily about transitive and intransitive verbs. This dichotomy is not identical to the specific/non-specific verb distinction in Inuktitut, since Inuktitut usage is also concerned with the definiteness of the objects of verb,
Consequently, the application of the notion of ergativity to Inuktitut, and to many other languages, is somewhat controversial. Regardless, by analogy with more conventionally ergative languages, the -up, -k, -it endings described above are often called ergative suffixes which are taken to be indicative of the ergative case, while the -mik, -rnik, -nik endings (see Non-specific verbs - Objects) are called accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
. This usage is often seen in linguistics literature describing Inuktitut, and sometimes in pedagogic literature and dictionaries, but remains a quite foreign vocabulary to most Inuit.
External links
Dictionaries and lexica- Inuktitut - English Dictionary
- Nunavut Living Dictionary
- Interactive IñupiaQ Dictionary
- Oqaasileriffik Language database
Webpages
- A Brief History of Inuktitut Writing Culture
- Inuktitut Syllabarium
- Our Language, Our Selves
- Writing in Inuktitut
- Alt.folkore.urban on Eskimo words for snow.
- Arctic Languages: An Awakening, ed: Dirmid R. F. Collis. ISBN 92-3-102661-5 Available in PDF via the UNESCO website (chapter with Inuit grammar).