Greenlandic language
Greenlandic | |
---|---|
kalaallisut | |
Native to | Greenland |
Region | Greenland, Denmark |
Ethnicity | Greenlandic Inuit |
Native speakers | 57,000 (2007)[1] |
Early forms | |
Dialects |
|
Official status | |
Official language in | Greenland[2] |
Recognised minority language in | |
Regulated by | Oqaasileriffik |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | kl |
ISO 639-2 | kal |
ISO 639-3 | kal |
Glottolog | gree1280 |
ELP | Kalaallisut |
IETF | kl |
West Greenlandic is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Greenlandic (Greenlandic: kalaallisut .
Greenlandic is a
Nouns are inflected by one of eight
When adopting new concepts or technologies, Greenlandic usually constructs new words made from Greenlandic roots, but modern Greenlandic has also taken many
History
Greenlandic was brought to Greenland by the arrival of the Thule people in the 1200s. The languages that were spoken by the earlier Saqqaq and Dorset cultures in Greenland are unknown.
The first descriptions of Greenlandic date from the 1600s. With the arrival of Danish missionaries in the early 1700s and the beginning of Danish colonization of Greenland, the compilation of dictionaries and description of grammar began. The missionary Paul Egede wrote the first Greenlandic dictionary in 1750 and the first grammar in 1760.[6]
From the Danish colonization in the 1700s to the beginning of Greenlandic home rule in 1979, Greenlandic experienced increasing pressure from the Danish language. In the 1950s, Denmark's linguistic policies were directed at strengthening Danish. Of primary significance was the fact that post-primary education and official functions were conducted in Danish.[7]
From 1851 to 1973, Greenlandic was written in a complicated orthography devised by the missionary linguist Samuel Kleinschmidt. In 1973, a new orthography was introduced, intended to bring the written language closer to the spoken standard, which had changed considerably since Kleinschmidt's time. The reform was effective, and in the years following it, Greenlandic literacy has received a boost.[7]
Another development that has strengthened Greenlandic language is the policy of "Greenlandization" of Greenlandic society that began with the home rule agreement of 1979. The policy has worked to reverse the former trend towards marginalization of the Greenlandic language by making it the official language of education. The fact that Greenlandic has become the only language used in primary schooling means that monolingual Danish-speaking parents in Greenland are now raising children bilingual in Danish and Greenlandic.[8] Greenlandic now has several dedicated news media: the Greenlandic National Radio, Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa, which provides television and radio programming in Greenlandic. The newspaper Sermitsiaq has been published since 1958 and merged in 2010 with the other newspaper Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, which had been established in 1861 to form a single large Greenlandic language publishing house.[9][10]
Before June 2009, Greenlandic shared its status as the official language in Greenland with Danish.
Classification
- Inuit languages
- Greenlandic
- Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic)
- Tunumiisut(East Greenlandic)
- Inuktun
- Greenlandic
English | Kalaallisut | Inuktun | Tunumiisut |
---|---|---|---|
humans | inuit | inughuit[15] | iivit[16] |
The most prominent Greenlandic dialect is Kalaallisut, which is the official language of Greenland. The name Kalaallisut is often used as a cover term for all of Greenlandic. The eastern dialect (
Kalaallisut is further divided into four subdialects. One that is spoken around Upernavik has certain similarities to East Greenlandic, possibly because of a previous migration from eastern Greenland. A second dialect is spoken in the region of Uummannaq and the Disko Bay. The standard language is based on the central Kalaallisut dialect spoken in Sisimiut in the north, around Nuuk and as far south as Maniitsoq. Southern Kalaallisut is spoken around Narsaq and Qaqortoq in the south.[6] Table 1 shows the differences in the pronunciation of the word for "humans" in the two main dialects and Inuktun. It can be seen that Inuktun is the most conservative by maintaining ⟨gh⟩, which has been elided in Kalaallisut, and Tunumiisut is the most innovative by further simplifying its structure by eliding /n/.
Phonology
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i (y) | (ʉ) | u |
Mid | (e~ɛ~ɐ) | (o~ɔ) | |
Open | a | (ɑ) |
The Greenlandic three-
The allophonic lowering of /i/ and /u/ before uvular consonants is shown in the modern orthography by writing /i/ and /u/ as ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ respectively before ⟨q⟩ and ⟨r⟩. For example:
- /ui/ "husband" pronounced [ui].
- /uiqarpuq/ "(s)he has a husband" pronounced [ueqɑppɔq] and written ⟨ueqarpoq⟩.
- /illu/ "house" pronounced [iɬɬu].
- /illuqarpuq/ "(s)he has a house" pronounced [iɬɬoqɑppɔq] and written ⟨illoqarpoq⟩.
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lateral | |||||
Nasals
|
m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩
|
ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ɴ ⟨rn⟩[a] | ||
Plosives
|
p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩
|
k ⟨k⟩ | q ⟨q⟩ | ||
Affricate | t͡s[b] | |||||
Fricatives
|
v ⟨v⟩[c] | s ⟨s⟩ | ɬ ⟨ll⟩[d]
|
ʃ[e] | ɣ ⟨g⟩ | ʁ ⟨r⟩ |
Liquids | l ⟨l⟩
|
|||||
Semivowel | j ⟨j⟩ |
- ^ The uvular nasal [ɴ] is not found in all dialects and there is dialectal variability regarding its status as a phoneme [23]
- ^ Short [t͡s] is in complementary distribution with short [t], with the former appearing before /i/ and the latter elsewhere; both are written ⟨t⟩ and could be analysed as belonging to the same phoneme /t/. Before /i/, long [tt͡s] occurs while long [tt] does not, so long [tt͡s] before /i/ could be analysed as long /tt/. However, before /a/ and /u/, both long [tt͡s] and long [tt] occur (except in some dialects, including that of Greenland's third largest town). Long [tt͡s] is always written ⟨ts⟩, e.g. asavatsigut ‘you love us’, atsa ‘aunt (father's sister)’, Maniitsoq.
- geminate; /rv/ is written ⟨rf⟩; otherwise, ⟨f⟩ occurs only in loanwords.
- ^ When /l/ is geminated, it is heard as a [ɬɬ] fricative sound.
- ^ /ʃ/ is found in some dialects (including those of Greenland's two largest towns) but is not distinguished from /s/ in the written language.
The palatal sibilant [ʃ] has merged with [s] in all dialects except those of the Sisimiut–Maniitsoq–Nuuk–Paamiut area.[24][25] The labiodental fricative [f] is contrastive only in loanwords. The alveolar stop /t/ is pronounced as an affricate [t͡s] before the high front vowel /i/. Often, Danish loanwords containing ⟨b d g⟩ preserve these in writing, but that does not imply a change in pronunciation, for example ⟨baaja⟩ [paːja] "beer" and ⟨Guuti⟩ [kuːtˢi] "God"; these are pronounced exactly as /p t k/.[26]
Grammar
Morphology
The broad outline of the Greenlandic grammar is similar to other Eskimo languages, on the morpholological and syntactic plan.
The
There are few compound words but many derivations.
The language distinguishes four persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th or 3rd reflexive (see Obviation and switch-reference); two numbers (singular and plural but no dual, unlike Inuktitut); eight moods (indicative, interrogative, imperative, optative, conditional, causative, contemporative and participial) and eight cases (absolutive, ergative, equative, instrumental, locative, allative, ablative and prolative). Greenlandic (including the eastern Tunumiisut variety) is the only Eskimo language having lost its dual.
Declension
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Absolutive | +∅ | +t |
Ergative | +p | |
Instrumental | +mik | +nik |
Allative | +mut | +nut |
Ablative | +mit | +nit |
Locative | +mi | +ni |
Prolative | +kkut | +tigut |
Equative | +tut |
Verbs carry a bipersonal inflection for subject and object. Possessive noun phrases inflect for both possessor and case.[31]
In this section, the examples are written in Greenlandic standard orthography except that morpheme boundaries are indicated by a hyphen.
Syntax
Greenlandic distinguishes three
Verb | Noun | Particle | |
---|---|---|---|
Word | Oqar-poq say-3SG/IND "he says" |
Angut man.ABS "A man" |
Naamik No "No" |
The verb is the only word that is required in a sentence. Since verbs inflect for number and person of both subject and object, the verb is in fact a clause itself. Therefore, clauses in which all participants are expressed as free-standing noun phrases are rather rare.[32] The following examples show the possibilities of leaving out the verbal arguments:
Sini-ppoq
sleep-3SG/IND
"(S)he sleeps"
Angut
man.ABS
sinippoq
sleep-3SG/IND
"the man sleeps"
Asa-vaa
love-3SG/3SG
"(S)he loves him/her/it"
Angut-ip
man-ERG
asa-vaa
love-3SG/3SG
"the man loves him/her/it"
Arnaq
woman.ABS
asa-vaa
love-3SG/3SG
"(S)he loves the woman"
Morphosyntactic alignment
The Greenlandic language uses
Greenlandic is an ergative–absolutive language and so instead of treating the
Anda
Anda.ABS
sini-ppoq
sleep-3SG/IND
"Anda sleeps"
Anda-p
Anda-ERG
nanoq
bear.ABS
taku-aa
see-3SG/3SG
"Anda sees a bear"
Word order
In transitive clauses whose object and subject are expressed as free noun phrases, the basic pragmatically-neutral word order is
On the other hand, the noun phrase is characterized by a rigid order in which the head of the phrase precedes any modifiers and the possessor precedes the possessed.[37][failed verification]
In copula clauses, the word order is usually subject-copula-complement.
Andap
Anda
A
tujuuluk
sweater
O
pisiaraa
bought
V
"Anda bought the sweater"
An attribute appears after its head noun.
Andap
Anda
A
tujuuluk
sweater
O
tungujortoq
blue
X
pisiaraa
bought
V
"Anda bought the blue sweater"
An attribute of an incorporated noun appears after the verb:
Anda
Anda
S
sanasuuvoq
carpenter-is
V
pikkorissoq
skilled
APP
"Anda is a skilled carpenter"
Coordination and subordination
Syntactic coordination and subordination is built by combining predicates in the superordinate moods (indicative, interrogative, imperative and optative) with predicates in the subordinate moods (conditional, causative, contemporative and participial). The contemporative has both coordinative and subordinative functions, depending on the context.[38] The relative order of the main clause and its coordinate or subordinate clauses is relatively free and is subject mostly to pragmatic concerns.[39]
Obviation and switch-reference
The Greenlandic pronominal system includes a distinction known as obviation[40] or switch-reference.[41] There is a special so-called fourth person[42] to denote a third person subject of a subordinate verb or the possessor of a noun that is coreferent with the third person subject of the matrix clause.[43] Here are examples of the difference between third and the fourth persons:
- third person
illu-a
house-3.POSS
taku-aa
see-3SG/3SG
"he saw his (the other man's) house"
Ole
Ole
oqar-poq
say-3SG
tillu-kkiga
hit-1SG/3SG
"Ole said I had hit him (the other man)"
Eva
Eva
iser-pat
come in-3SG
sini-ssaa-q
sleep-expect-3SG
"When Eva comes in (s)he'll sleep (someone else)"
- fourth person
illu-ni
house-4.POSS
taku-aa
see-3SG/3SG
"he saw his own house"
Ole
Ole
oqar-poq
say-3SG
tillu-kkini
hit-1SG/4
"Ole said I had hit him (Ole)"
Eva
Eva
iser-uni
come in-4
sini-ssaa-q
sleep-expect-3SG
"When Eva comes in she'll sleep"
Indefiniteness construction
There is no category of definiteness in Greenlandic and so information on whether participants are already known to the listener or they are new to the discourse is encoded by other means. According to some authors, morphology related to transitivity such as the use of the construction sometimes called antipassive[44][45] or intransitive object[46] conveys such meaning, along with strategies of noun incorporation of non-topical noun phrases.[47][48] That view, however, is controversial.[49]
Piitap
Peter-ERG
arfeq
whale
takuaa
see
"Peter saw the whale"
Piitaq
Peter-ABS
arfermik
whale-INSTR
takuvoq
see
"Peter saw (a) whale"
Verbs
The morphology of Greenlandic verbs is enormously complex. The main processes are
Inflection
Greenlandic verbs inflect for
Indicative and interrogative moods
The indicative mood is used in all independent expository clauses. The interrogative mood is used for questions that do not have the question particle immaqa "maybe".[56]
napparsima-vit?
be sick-2/INTERR
"Are you sick?"
naamik,
no,
napparsima-nngila-nga
be sick-NEG-1/IND
"No, I am not sick"
The table below shows the intransitive inflection of the verb neri- "to eat" in the indicative and interrogative moods (question marks mark interrogative intonation; questions have falling intonation on the last syllable, unlike English and most other Indo-European languages, whose questions are marked by rising intonation). Both the indicative and the interrogative mood have a transitive and an intransitive inflection, but only the intransitive inflection is given here. Consonant gradation like in Finnish appears to occur in the verb conjugation (with strengthening to pp in the 3rd person plural and weakening to v elsewhere).
indicative | interrogative |
---|---|
nerivunga "I am eating" | nerivunga? "Am I eating?" |
nerivutit "You are eating" | nerivit? "Are you eating?" |
nerivoq "He/she/it eats" | neriva? "Is he/she/it eating?" |
nerivugut "We are eating" | nerivugut? "Are we eating?" |
nerivusi "You are eating (pl.)" | nerivisi? "Are you eating? (pl.)" |
neripput "They are eating" | nerippat? "Are they eating?" |
The table below shows the transitive indicative inflection for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular subjects of the verb asa- "to love" (an asterisk means that the form does not occur as such but uses a different reflexive inflection).
First person singular subject | Second person singular subject | Third person singular subject |
---|---|---|
* | asavarma love-2SG/1SG "You love me" |
asavaanga love-3SG/1SG "He/she/it loves me" |
asavakkit love-1SG/2SG "I love you" |
* | asavaatit love-3SG/2SG "He/she/it loves you" |
asavara love-1SG/3SG "I love him/her/it" |
asavat love-2SG/3SG "You love her/him/it" |
asavaa love-3SG/3SG "He/she/it loves him/her/it" |
* | asavatsigut love-2SG/1PL "You love us" |
asavaatigut love-3SG/1PL "He/she/it loves us" |
asavassi love-1SG/2PL "I love you (pl.)" |
* | asavaasi love-3SG/2PL "He/she/it loves you (pl.)" |
asavakka love-1SG/3PL "I love them" |
asavatit love-2SG/3PL "You love them" |
asavai love-3SG/3PL "He/she/it loves them" |
The table below gives the basic form of all the inflexional suffixes in the indicative and interrogative moods. Where the indicative and interrogative forms differ, the interrogative form is given second in brackets. Suffixes used with intransitive verbs are in italics, while suffixes used with transitive verbs are unmarked.
Object of transitive verb or subject of intransitive verb | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | ||||||
singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | |||
vunga | vugut | vutit [vit?] | vusi [visi?] | voq [va?] | pput [ppat?] | |||
1st person | singular | vakkit | vassi | vara | vakka | |||
plural | vatsigit | varput | vavut | |||||
2nd person | singular | varma [vinga?] | vatsigut [visigut?] | vat [viuk?] | vatit [vigit?] | |||
plural | vassinga [visinga?] | varsi [visiuk?] | vasi [visigit?] | |||||
3rd person | singular | vaanga | vaatigut | vaatit | vaasi | vaa | vai | |
plural | vaannga | vaatsit | vaat | vaat |
Apart from the similarities between forms highlighted in bold, it will be observed that all basic forms start with v- except for the 3rd person plural intransitive forms, that all basic transitive indicative forms have /a/ as their first vowel, that all basic intransitive indicative forms have /u/ as their first vowel (voq is phonemically /vuq/), and that all basic forms unique to the interrogative mood have /i/ as their first vowel except for the 3rd person intransitive forms. Furthermore, if the subject of a transitive verb is 3rd person, the suffix will start with vaa- (with one exception). In the forms unique to the interrogative transitive (which all have 2nd person subjects), the forms with a (2nd person) singular subject are turned into forms with a (2nd person) plural subject by adding -si- after the initial vi- (except when the object is 1st person plural, in which case the same form is used for both plural and singular subject, as is the case for all indicative and interrogative forms with the object in the 1st or 2nd person plural). When the object is 1st or 2nd person singular, the forms with a 3rd person singular subject are turned into forms with a (3rd person) plural subject by lengthening the second consonant: [vaːŋa] → [vaːŋŋa], [vaːt͡sit̚] → [vaːtt͡sit̚]. If the subject or object is 2nd person plural, the suffix will include -si(-). If the subject or object is 1st person plural, the suffix will end in -t except when the object is 2nd person plural.
The interrogative mood has separate forms only when the subject is 2nd person or intransitive 3rd person; otherwise, the interrogative forms are identical to the indicative forms. All suffixes that start with vi- have a subject in the 2nd person.
The initial v- changes to p- or is deleted according to the rules described above.
After the suffix -nngil- ‘not’, v- is deleted (while the pp- of the 3rd person plural intransitive forms is changed to l-) and a first vowel /u/ is changed to /a/ (e.g. suli+vugut ‘we work’ but suli-nngil+agut ‘we don't work’). The intransitive 2nd person does not have separate interrogative forms after -nngil-, hence e.g.
- suli+vutit ‘you (sg.) work’
- suli-nngil+atit ‘you (sg.) don't work’
- suli+vit? ‘do you (sg.) work?’
- suli-nngil+atit? ‘don't you (sg.) work?’ (instead of the expected *suli-nngil+it?)
After the future suffix -ssa-, vu- and vo- (both /vu/) change to a-. (Va-, vi-, ppu-, and ppa- do not change.)
After the suffix -qa- ‘very’, vu-, vo-, va-, vi-, ppu-, and ppa- all change to a- (except when this would lead to aaa, in which case aaa is shortened to aa). -qa- + vai becomes qai, not *qaai. (In accordance with the rule, aau becomes aaju, hence -qa- + viuk becomes qaajuk, not *qaauk.) The suffix -qa- was historically -qi-.
Imperative and optative moods
The imperative mood is used to issue orders and is always combined with the second person. The optative is used to express wishes or exhortations and is never used with the second person. There is a negative imperative form used to issue prohibitions. Both optative and imperative have transitive and intransitive paradigms. There are two transitive positive imperative paradigms: a standard one and another that is considered rude and is used usually to address children.[57]
sini-git!
sleep-IMP
"Sleep!"
sini-llanga
sleep-1.OPT
"Let me sleep!"
sini-nnak!
sleep-NEG.IMP
"Don't sleep!"
Conditional mood
The conditional mood is used to construct subordinate clauses that mean "if" or "when".[58]
seqinner-pat
sunshine-COND
Eva
Eva
ani-ssaa-q
go out-expect/3SG
"If the sun shines, Eva will go out"
Causative mood
The causative mood (sometimes called the conjunctive) is used to construct subordinate clauses that mean "because", "since" or "when" and is also sometimes used to mean "that". The causative is used also in main clauses to imply some underlying cause.[59]
qasu-gami
be tired-CAU/3SG
innar-poq
go to bed-3SG
"He went to bed because he was tired"
matta-ttor-ama
blubber-eat-CAU/1SG
"I've eaten blubber (that's why I'm not hungry)"
ani-guit
go out-COND/2SG
eqqaama-ssa-vat
remember-FUT-IMP
teriannia-qar-mat
fox-are-CAUS
"If you go out, remember that there are foxes"
Contemporative mood
The contemporative mood is used to construct subordinate clauses with the meaning of simultaneity and is used only if the subject of the subordinate clause and of the main clause are identical. If they differ, the participial mood or the causative mood is used. The contemporative can also be used to form complement clauses for verbs of speaking or thinking.[60]
qasu-llunga
be tired-CONT.1SG
angerlar-punga
go.home-1SG
"Being tired, I went home"
98-inik
98-INSTR.PL
ukio-qar-luni
year-have-CONT.4.SG
toqu-voq
die-3SG
"Being 98 years old, he/she died", "he/she was 98 when he/she died"
Eva
Eva
oqar-poq
say-3SG
kami-it
boot-PL
akiler-lugit
pay-CONT.3PL
"Eva said she had paid for the boots"
Participial mood
The participial mood is used to construct a subordinate clause describing its subject in the state of carrying out an activity. It is used when the matrix clause and the subordinate clause have different subjects. It is often used in appositional phrases such as
atuar-toq
read-PART/3SG
taku-ara
see-1SG/3SG
"I saw her read/I saw that she read"
neriu-ppunga
hope-1SG
tiki-ssa-soq
come-expect-PART/3SG
"I hope he is coming/I hope he'll come"
Derivation
Verbal derivation is extremely productive, and Greenlandic has many hundreds of derivational suffixes. Often, a single verb uses more than one derivational suffix, resulting in very long words. Here are some examples of how derivational suffixes can change the meaning of verbs:
-katak- "be tired of" |
taku-katap-para see-tired.of-1SG/3SG "I am tired of seeing it/him/her |
---|---|
-ler- "begin to/be about to" |
neri-ler-pugut eat-begin-1PL "We are about to eat" |
-llaqqik- "be proficient at" |
erinar-su-llaqqip-poq sing-HAB-proficiently-3SG She is good at singing |
-niar- "plans to/wants to" |
aallar-niar-poq travel-plan-3SG "He plans to travel" angerlar-niar-aluar-punga go.home-plan-though-1SG "I was planning to go home though" |
-ngajak- "almost" |
sini-ngajap-punga sleep-almost-1SG "I had almost fallen asleep" |
-nikuu-nngila- "has never" |
taku-nikuu-nngila-ra see-never-NEG-1SG/3SG "I have never seen it" |
-nngitsoor- "not anyway/afterall" |
tiki-nngitsoor-poq arrive-not.afterall-3SG "He hasn't arrived after all" |
Time reference and aspect
Greenlandic grammar has morphological devices to mark a distinction between the recent and distant past, but their use is optional
All other things being equal and in the absence of any explicit adverbials, the indicative mood is interpreted as complete or incomplete, depending on the verbal lexical aspect.[64]
However, if a sentence with an atelic verbal phrase is embedded within the context of a past-time narrative, it would be interpreted as past.[65]
Greenlandic has several purely-derivational devices of expressing meaning related to aspect and lexical aspect such as sar, expressing "habituality", and ssaar, expressing, "stop to".[66] Also, there are at least two major perfect markers: sima and nikuu. sima can occur in several positions with obviously-different functions.[67] The last position indicates evidential meaning, but that can be determined only if several suffixes are present.
With atelic verbs, there is a regular contrast between indirective evidentiality, marked by sima, and witnessed evidentiality, marked by nikuu.[69] Its evidential meaning causes the combination of first person and sima to be sometimes marked.[70]
qia-sima-voq
cry-sima-3sg/IND
"He cried (his eyes are swollen)"
In the written language[62] and more recently also in the spoken language, especially by younger speakers, sima and nikuu can be used together with adverbials to refer to a particular time in the past.[71] That is, they can arguably mark time reference but do not yet do so systematically.
Just as Greenlandic does not systematically mark past tense, the language also does not have a future tense. Rather, it employs three different strategies to express future meaning:
Ilimaga-ara
expect-1sg/3sg/IND
aasaq
summer
manna
this
Dudley
Dudley
qujanar-tor-si-ffigi-ssa-llugu
be.fun-cn-get.from-expect-CONT/3sg
"I expect to get some fun out of Dudley this summer."
Aggiuti-ler-para
bring-begin-1sg/3sg/IND
"I've started to bring him."
Qimmii-t
dog-PL
nerisi(k)-tigit
feed-please-we/them/IMP
"Let us feed the dogs, ok?"[72]
The status of the perfect markers as aspect is not very controversial, but some scholars have claimed that Greenlandic has a basic temporal distinction between future and nonfuture. Especially, the suffix -ssa and handful of other suffixes have been claimed to be obligatory future markers.[74][75] However, at least for literary Greenlandic, the suffixes have been shown to have other semantics, which can be used to refer to the future by the strategies that have just been described.[76]
Voice
Greenlandic has an antipassive voice, which transforms the ergative subject into an absolutive subject and the absolutive object into an instrumental argument; it is formed mostly by the addition of the marker -(s)i- to the verb (the presence of the consonant being mostly phonologically determined, albeit with a few cases of lexically determined distribution) and, in small lexically restricted sets of verbs, by the addition of -nnig- or -ller- (the former being, however, more frequent because it is the one selected by the common verbal element -gi/ri- 'to have as').[44] It has also been analysed as having passive voice constructions, which are formed with the elements -saa- (composed of the passive participle suffix -sa- and -u- 'to be'), -neqar- (composed of the verbal noun suffix -neq- and -qar- 'to have') and -tit- (only to demote higher animate participants, also used with a reflexive causative meaning 'to cause, let [someone do something to one]'). In addition, an "impersonal passive" from intransitive verbs -toqar- (composed of intransitive agent suffix -toq- and -qar 'to have') has been identified.[77]
Noun incorporation
There is also a debate in the linguistic literature on whether Greenlandic has
Other linguists maintain that the morphemes in question are simply derivational morphemes that allow the formation of denominal verbs. That argument is supported by the fact that the morphemes are always latched on to a nominal element.[84][85][86] These examples illustrate how Greenlandic forms complex predicates including nominal roots:
qimmeq "dog" +
-qar- "have" |
qimme- dog -qar- have -poq 3SG "She has a dog" |
---|---|
illu "house" +
-lior- "make" |
illu- house -lior- make -poq 3SG "She builds a house" |
kaffi "coffee" +
-sor- "drink/eat" |
kaffi- coffee -sor- drink/eat -poq 3SG "She drinks coffee" |
puisi "seal" +
-nniar- "hunt" |
puisi- seal -nniar- hunt -poq 3SG "She hunts seal" |
allagaq "letter" +
-si- "receive" |
allagar- letter -si- receive -voq 3SG "She has received a letter" |
anaana "mother" +
-a- "to be" |
anaana- mother -a- to be -voq 3SG "She is a mother" |
Nouns
Nouns are always inflected for case and number and sometimes for number and person of possessor. Singular and plural are distinguished and eight cases are used: absolutive, ergative (relative), instrumental, allative, locative, ablative, prosecutive (also called vialis or prolative) and equative.[87] Case and number are marked by a single suffix. Nouns can be derived from verbs or from other nouns by a number of suffixes: atuar- "to read" + -fik "place" becomes atuarfik "school" and atuarfik + -tsialak "something good" becomes atuarfitsialak "good school".
Since the possessive agreement suffixes on nouns and the transitive agreement suffixes on verbs in a number of instances have similar or identical shapes, there is even a theory that Greenlandic distinguishes between transitive and intransitive nouns as it does for verbs.[88][note 5]
Pronouns
There are personal pronouns for first, second, and third person singular and plural. They are optional as subjects or objects but only when the verbal inflection refers to such arguments.[89]
Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|
1st person | uanga | uagut |
2nd person | illit | ilissi |
3rd person | una | uku |
Personal pronouns are, however, required in the oblique case:
illit
you
nere-qu-aatit
eat-tell to-3s–2s-IND
'He told you to eat'
Case
Both grammatical core cases, ergative and absolutive, are used to express grammatical and syntactical roles of participant noun phrases. The oblique cases express information related to movement and manner.
case | singular | plural |
---|---|---|
Absolutive | -Ø | -(i)t |
Ergative | -(u)p | -(i)t |
Instrumental | -mik | -nik |
Allative | -mut | -nut |
Locative | -mi | -ni |
Ablative | -mit | -nit |
Prosecutive | -kkut | -tigut |
Equative | -tut | -tut |
angut-Ø
man-ABS
neri-voq
eat-3sg
"The man eats"
anguti-p
man-ERG
puisi
seal-ABS
neri-vaa
eat-3sg/3sg
"The man eats the seal"
The
nanoq-Ø
polar bear-ABS
savim-mi-nik
knife-his.own-INSTR
kapi-vaa
stab-3sg/3sg
"He stabbed the bear with his knife"
Piitaq-Ø
Peter-ABS
savim-mik
knife-INSTR
tuni-vara
give-1sg/3sg
"I gave Peter a knife"
There is no case marking if the noun is incorporated. Many sentences can be constructed oblique object as well as incorporated object.
kaffi-sor-tar-poq
coffee-drink-usually-3sg
"She usually drinks coffee"
kaffi-mik
coffee-INSTR
imer-tar-poq
drink-usually-3sg
"She usually drinks coffee"
It is also used to express the meaning of "give me" and to form adverbs from nouns:
imer-mik!
water-INSTR
"(give me) water"
sivisuu-mik
late-INSTR
sinip-poq
sleep-3sg
"He slept late"
The allative case describes movement towards something.[93]
illu-mut
house-ALL
"towards the house"
It is also used with numerals and the question word qassit to express the time of the clock and in the meaning "amount per unit":
qassi-nut?
when-ALL
–
pingasu-nut.
three-ALL
"When?" – "At three o'clock"
kiilu-mut
kilo-ALL
tiiva
twenty
krone-qar-poq
crown-have-3sg
"It costs 20 crowns per kilo"
The locative case describes spatial location:[93]
illu-mi
house-LOC
"in the house"
The ablative case describes movement away from something or the source of something:[93]
Rasmussi-mit
Rasmus-ABL
allagarsi-voq
receive.letter-3sg
"He got a letter from Rasmus"
The
matu-kkut
door-PROS
iser-poq
enter-3SG
"He entered through the door"
su-kkut
where-PROS
tillup-paatit?
hit-3sg/2sg
"Where (on the body) did he hit you?"
The prosecutive case ending "-kkut" is distinct from the affix "-kkut" which denotes a noun and its companions, e.g. a person and friends or family:[95]
palasi-kkut
priest-and-companions-of
"the priest and his family"
The equative case describes similarity of manner or quality. It is also used to derive language names from nouns denoting nationalities: "like a person of x nationality [speaks]".[94]
nakorsatut
doctor-EQU
suli-sar-poq
work-HAB-3SG
"he works as a doctor"
Qallunaa-tut
dane-EQU
"Danish language (like a Dane)"
Possession
Possessor | Singular | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
1st person |
singular | illora "my house" | illukka "my houses" |
plural | illorput "our house" | illuvut "our houses" | |
2nd person |
singular | illut "your house" | illutit "your houses" |
plural | illorsi "your (pl) house" | illusi "your (pl) houses" | |
3rd person |
singular | illua "his house" | illui "his houses" |
plural | illuat "their house" | illui "their houses" | |
4th person |
singular | illuni "his own house" | illuni "his own houses" |
plural | illortik "their own house" | illutik "their own houses" |
In Greenlandic, possession is marked on the noun that agrees with the person and the number of its possessor. The possessor is in the ergative case. There are different possessive paradigms for each different case.[96] Table 4 gives the possessive paradigm for the absolutive case of illu "house". Here are examples of the use of the possessive inflection, the use of the ergative case for possessors and the use of fourth person possessors.
Anda-p
Anda-ERG
illu-a
house-3SG/POSS
"Anda's house"
Anda-p
Anda-ERG
illu-ni
house-4/POSS
taku-aa
see-3SG/3SG
"Anda sees his own house"
Anda-p
Anda-ERG
illu-a
house-3SG/POSS
taku-aa
see-3SG/3SG
"Anda sees his (the other man's) house"
Numerals
The numerals and lower numbers are,[97]
1 | ataaseq |
---|---|
2 | marluk |
3 | pingasut |
4 | sisamat |
5 | tallimat |
6 | arfinillit |
7 | arfineq-marluk |
8 | arfineq-pingasut |
9 | qulaaluat, qulingiluat, arfineq-sisamat |
10 | qulit |
11 | isikkanillit, aqqanillit |
12 | isikkaneq-marluk, aqqaneq-marluk |
Vocabulary
Most of Greenlandic's
- oqarpoq 'says'
- oqaaseq 'word'
- oqaluppoq 'speaks'
- oqallissaarut 'discussion paper'
- oqaasilerisoq 'linguist'
- oqaasilerissutit 'grammar'
- oqaluttualiortoq 'author'
- oqaloqatigiinneq 'conversation'
- oqaasipiluuppaa 'harangues him'
- oqaatiginerluppaa 'speaks badly about him'
Lexical differences between dialects are often considerable because of the earlier cultural practice of imposing a taboo on words that had served as names for a deceased person. Since people were often named after everyday objects, many of them have changed their name several times because of taboo rules, another cause of the divergence of dialectal vocabulary.[6]
Orthography
Greenlandic is written with the Latin script. The alphabet consists of 18 letters:
- A E F G I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
⟨b, c, d, h, w, x, y, z, æ, ø, å⟩ are used to spell loanwords, especially from Danish and English.
From 1851 until 1973, Greenlandic was written in an alphabet invented by
Technically, the Kleinschmidt orthography focused upon morphology: the same derivational affix would be written in the same way in different contexts, despite its being pronounced differently in different contexts. The 1973 reform replaced this with a phonological system: Here, there was a clear link from written form to pronunciation, and the same suffix is now written differently in different contexts: for example ⟨e, o⟩ do not represent separate phonemes, but only more open pronunciations of /i/ /u/ before /q/ /ʁ/. The differences are due to phonological changes. It is therefore easy to go from the old orthography to the new (cf. the online converter)[101] whereas going the other direction would require a full lexical analysis.
Language learning resources
Greenlandic can be learnt on the online platforms of Memrise and UTalk.[102]
Example text
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greenlandic:
(Pre-reform)
- Inuit tamarmik inúngorput nangminêrsivnâgsusseĸarlutik agsigĩmigdlo atarĸinagsusseĸarlutigdlo pisivnâtitãfeĸarlutik. Silaĸagsussermik tarnigdlo nalúngigsussianik pilerssugaugput, ingmingnudlo iliorfigeĸatigĩtariaĸaraluarput ĸatángutigĩtut peĸatigîvnerup anersâvane.
(Post-reform)
- Inuit tamarmik inunngorput nammineersinnaassuseqarlutik assigiimmillu ataqqinassuseqarlutillu pisinnaatitaaffeqarlutik. Silaqassusermik tarnillu nalunngissusianik pilersugaapput, imminnullu iliorfigeqatigiittariaqaraluarput qatanngutigiittut peqatigiinnerup anersaavani.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
- "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
See also
Notes
- ^ The CIA World Factbook has reported Greenlandic literacy as being 100 percent since at least 2007, when it also reported six other countries achieving one hundred percent literacy.[3] The Factbook's most recently reported data for Greenland literacy was for 2015.[4]
- ^ According to the Namminersornerullutik Oqartussat / Grønlands Hjemmestyres (Greenlands Home, official website): " Language. The official languages are Greenlandic and Danish.... Greenlandic is the language [that is] used in schools and [that] dominates in most towns and settlements".[11]
- ^ For example the word Nalunaarasuartaatilioqateeraliorfinnialikkersaatiginialikkersaatilillaranatagoorunarsuarooq, which means something like "Once again they tried to build a giant radio station, but it was apparently only on the drawing board".
- ^ That can be compared to the English rate, of slightly more than one morpheme per word.
- ^ For example, the suffix with the shape -aa means "his/hers/its" when it is suffixed to a noun but "him/her/it" when it is suffixed to a verb. Likewise the suffix -ra means "my" or "me", depending on whether it is suffixed on a verb or a noun.
Abbreviations
For affixes about which the precise meaning is the cause of discussion among specialists, the suffix itself is used as a gloss, and its meaning must be understood from context: -SSA (meaning either future or expectation), -NIKUU and -SIMA.
References
- ^ a b Greenlandic at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b "Lov om Grønlands Selvstyre" (PDF). Lovtidende (in Danish). 2009-06-13. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-05.
Det grønlandske sprog er det oficielle sprog i Grønland.
- ^ "Country Comparison to the World of Literacy Rate". World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. May 2007. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007.
- ^ "People and Culture: Literacy". Greenland. World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. May 2023. Archived from the original on 13 May 2023.
- ^ International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (2007), "Greenland", World Report 2007 Country Reports (PDF), IFLA, pp. 175–176, archived from the original on 11 June 2023
- ^ a b c d Rischel, Jørgen. Grønlandsk sprog.[1] Den Store Danske Encyklopædi Vol. 8, Gyldendal
- ^ a b Goldbach & Winther-Jensen (1988).
- ^ Iutzi-Mitchell & Graburn (1993).
- ^ Jones & Olwig (2008), p. 133.
- ^ Dorais (2010), pp. 208–9.
- ^ "Culture and Communication". Archived from the original on 2009-02-27. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
- ^ UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger Archived 2009-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Greenland". CIA World Factbook. 2008-06-19. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ "Sermersooq will secure Eastern Greenlandic". Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa (in Danish). 2010-01-06. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
- ^ Fortescue (1991b) passim
- ^ Mennecier (1995), p. 102.
- ^ Mahieu & Tersis (2009), p. 53.
- ^ Fortescue (1990), p. 317.
- ^ Rischel (1974), pp. 79–80.
- ^ Jacobsen (2000).
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), p. 16.
- ^ a b c Hagerup (2011).
- ^ Rischel (1974), pp. 176–181.
- ^ Petersen, Robert, De grønlandske dialekters fordeling [The distribution of the Greenlandic dialects] (PDF) (in Danish) – via Oqaasileriffik [Greenlandic Language Secretariat]
- ^ Rischel (1974), pp. 173–177.
- ^ "grønlandsk | lex.dk". Den Store Danske (in Danish). Retrieved 2022-11-11.
- ^ Sadock (2003), p. 12.
- ^ Sadock (2003), pp. 3 & 8.
- ^ Fortescue & Lennert Olsen (1992), p. 112.
- ^ Sadock (2003), p. 11.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 33–34.
- ^ a b Bjørnum (2003).
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), p. 71.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 71–72.
- ^ Langgård (2009).
- ^ Fortescue (1993), p. 269.
- ^ Fortescue (1993), p. 269-270.
- ^ Fortescue (1984), p. 34.
- ^ Fortescue (1993), p. 270.
- ^ Bittner (1995), p. 80.
- ^ Fortescue (1991a), 53 ff.
- ^ Woodbury (1983).
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 152–154.
- ^ a b Schmidt (2003).
- ^ a b c Sadock (2003).
- ^ Fortescue (1984), pp. 92 & 249.
- ^ Hallman, Peter (n.d.) "Definiteness in Inuktitut"[2] p. 2
- ^ van Geenhoven (1998).
- ^ Bittner (1987).
- ^ Shaer (2003).
- ^ Bittner (2005).
- ^ Hayashi & Spreng (2005).
- ^ Fortescue (1980), note 1.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 35–50.
- ^ Fortescue & Lennert Olsen (1992), pp. 112 & 119–122.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), p. 39.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 40–42.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), p. 45.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 43–44.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 46–49.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), pp. 50–51.
- ^ a b c d Fortescue (1984), p. 273.
- ^ Trondhjem (2009), pp. 173–175.
- ^ a b c d Trondhjem (2009), p. 174.
- ^ Bittner (2005), p. 7.
- ^ Fortescue (1984, pp. 276–287) The dividing line between lexical aspect, aspect and still other functions that do not fit into those categories has yet to be clarified.
- ^ Fortescue (1984), pp. 272–273.
- ^ Trondhjem (2009), p. 177.
- ^ a b Trondhjem (2009), p. 179.
- ^ cp. Trondhjem (2009) p. 180
- ^ Trondhjem (2009), pp. 179–180.
- ^ Bittner (2005, pp. 12–13); translation of 15 altered. Glosses standardised to the system used in this article.
- ^ cp. Bittner (2005, p. 36)
- ^ Fortescue (1984).
- ^ Trondhjem (2009).
- ^ Bittner (2005), pp. 11, 38–43.
- ^ Sakel, Jeanette. 1999. Passive in Greenlandic
- ^ Sadock (1980).
- ^ Sadock (1986).
- ^ Sadock (1999).
- ^ "Malouf (1999)" (PDF). sdsu.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-07-12. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ van Geenhoven (2002).
- ^ Marianne Mithun "Polysynthesis in the Arctic" in Mahieu and Tersis (2009).
- ^ Mithun (1986).
- ^ Mithun (1984).
- ^ Rosen (1989).
- ^ Fortescue (1984), p. 71.
- ^ Sadock (2003), p. 5.
- ^ Fortescue (1984), p. 252.
- ^ Schmidt (2003) passim
- ^ Bittner (1987) passim
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), p. 73.
- ^ a b c Bjørnum (2003), p. 74.
- ^ a b Bjørnum (2003), p. 75.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), p. 239.
- ^ Bjørnum (2003), p. 86.
- ^ Dorais (2010).
- ^ Grønlands sprognævn (1992).
- ^ Petersen (1990).
- Evertype. Archived(PDF) from the original on 2021-09-06.
- ^ "Programs for analysing Greenlandic". giellatekno.uit.no. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
- ^ Croissant, Morgane (4 March 2022). "5 Languages on the Brink of Extinction That You Can Learn Online". Matador Network. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
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- Bittner, Maria (2005). "Future discourse in a tenseless language" (PDF). Journal of Semantics. 12 (4): 339–388. .
- Bjørnum, Stig (2003). Grønlandsk grammatik (in Danish). Atuagkat. ISBN 978-87-90133-14-6.
- Dorais, Louis-Jacques (2010). Language of the Inuit: Syntax, Semantics, and Society in the Arctic. McGill-Queen's Native and Northern Series. McGill-Queen's University Press. JSTOR j.ctt80t0m.
- S2CID 144093414.
- ISBN 978-0-7099-1069-5.
- ISBN 978-92-3-102661-4.
- ISBN 978-1-55619-107-7.
- ISBN 978-87-87874-16-8.
- ISBN 978-0-8058-0105-7.
- S2CID 144656468.
- van Geenhoven, Veerle (1998). Semantic incorporation and indefinite descriptions: semantic and syntactic aspects of noun incorporation in West Greenlandic. Stanford: CSLI Publications. ISBN 978-1-57586-133-3.
- van Geenhoven, Veerle (2002). "Raised Possessors and Noun Incorporation in West Greenlandic". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 20 (4): 759–821. S2CID 189900856.
- Goldbach, Ib; Winther-Jensen, Thyge (1988). "Greenland: Society and Education". Comparative Education. 24 (2, Special Number (11)): 257–266. .
- Hagerup, Asger (2011). A Phonological Analysis of Vowel Allophony in West Greenlandic. NTNU. hdl:11250/242778.
- Jacobsen, Birgitte (2000). "The Question of 'Stress' in West Greenlandic:An Acoustic Investigation of Rhythmicization, Intonation, and Syllable Weight". Phonetica. 57 (1): 40–67. S2CID 202654006.
- Jones, Michael; Olwig, Kenneth, eds. (2008). Nordic Landscapes: Region and Belonging on the Northern Edge of Europe. University of Minnesota Press.
- Grønlands sprognævn (1992). Icelandic Council for Standardization. Nordic cultural requirements on information technology. Reykjavík: Staðlaráð Íslands. ISBN 978-9979-9004-3-6.
- Hayashi, Midori; Spreng, Bettina (2005). "Is Inuktitut tenseless?" (PDF). In Claire Gurski (ed.). Proceedings of the 2005 Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Conference. 2005 CLA Annual Conference. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-01-08. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
- Iutzi-Mitchell, Roy D.; S2CID 152185608.
- Langgård, Karen (2009). "Grammatical structures in Greenlandic as found in texts written by young Greenlanders at the turn of the millennium". In Mahieu, Marc-Antoine; Tersis, Nicole (eds.). Variations on Polysynthesis: The Eskaleut languages. Typological Studies in Language. Vol. 86. pp. 231–247. .
- Schmidt, Bodil Kappel (2003). "West Greenlandic Antipassive". Nordlyd. 31 (2). Proceedings of the 19th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics: 385–399. Archived from the original on 2008-12-02. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
- Mahieu, Marc-Antoine; Tersis, Nicole (2009). Variations on polysynthesis: the Eskaleut languages. Typological studies in language. Vol. 86. John Benjamins. ISBN 978-90-272-0667-1.
- Malouf, Robert (1999). "West Greenlandic noun incorporation in a monohierarchical theory of grammar" (PDF). In Gert Webelhuth; Andreas Kathol; Jean-Pierre Koenig (eds.). Lexical and Constructional Aspects of Linguistic Explanation. Studies in constraint-based lexicalism. Stanford: CSLI Publications. ISBN 978-1-57586-152-4. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2003-07-12. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
- Mennecier, Philippe (1995). Le tunumiisut, dialecte inuit du Groenland oriental: description et analyse. Collection linguistique (in French). Vol. 78. Société de linguistique de Paris, Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-2-252-03042-4.
- JSTOR 413800.
- JSTOR 415599.
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- ISBN 978-87-500-1438-6.
- Rosen, Sara T. (1989). "Two types of noun incorporation: A lexical analysis" (PDF). Language. 65 (2): 294–317. JSTOR 415334.
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- Shaer, Benjamin (2003). "Toward the tenseless analysis of a tenseless language" (PDF). In Jan Anderssen; Paula Menéndez-Benito; Adam Werle (eds.). Proceedings of SULA 2. 2nd Conference on the Semantics of Under-represented Languages in the Americas. GLSA, University of Massachusetts Amherst. pp. 139–56.
- Trondhjem, Naja Frederikke (2009). "The marking of past time in Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic language". In Marc-Antoine Mahieu; Nicole Tersis (eds.). Variations on polysynthesis: the Eskaleut languages. Typological studies in language. Vol. 86. John Benjamins. pp. 171–185. ISBN 978-90-272-0667-1.
- Woodbury, Anthony C. (1983). "Switch-reference, syntactic organization, and rhetorical structure in Central Yup'ik Eskimo". In John Haiman; Pamela Munro (eds.). Switch-reference and universal grammar. Typological studies in language. Vol. 2. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 291–316. ISBN 978-90-272-2862-8.
Further reading
- Fortescue, M. D. (1990). From the writings of the Greenlanders = Kalaallit atuakkiaannit. [Fairbanks, Alaska]: University of Alaska Press. ISBN 0-912006-43-9
External links
- General Usage of the Greenlandic Language Papers at Dartmouth College Library
- Oqaasileriffik (The Greenland Language Secretariat) (version in English): contains many language resources including dictionaries, a speech synthesis program, a morphological analyser and a corpus
- Law of Greenlandic Selfrule (see chapter 7) (in Danish)