Dialogue: Welcome
Vocabulary
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tunngasugit
ᑐᙵᓱᒋᑦ
Welcome! (addressing 1 person)
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inuktituusuunguvit ?
ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑑᓲᖑᕕᑦ ?
Inuktitut (Do you speak... ?)
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ii
ᐄ
yes
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mikijumik
ᒥᑭᔪᒥᒃ
little bit (a...)
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kina?
ᑭᓇ?
who?
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kinauvit?
ᑭᓇᐅᕕᑦ?
What's your name?
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kinauva?
ᑭᓇᐅᕙ?
What is his / her name?
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nami?
ᓇᒥ?
where?
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namimiutauvit?
ᓇᒥᒥᐅᑕᐅᕕᑦ?
Where are you from?
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Iqalummiutaujunga
ᐃᖃᓗᒻᒥᐅᑕᐅᔪᖓ
I'm from Iqaluit.
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Aatuvaa
ᐋᑐᕚ
Ottawa
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Aatuvaamiutaujunga
ᐋᑐᕚᒥᐅᑕᐅᔪᖓ
I'm from Ottawa.
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nirijunga
ᓂᕆᔪᖓ
eat, I...
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nirijutit
ᓂᕆᔪᑎᑦ
eat, you...
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nirijuq
ᓂᕆᔪᖅ
eats, she/he...
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nirijuguk
ᓂᕆᔪᒍᒃ
eat, we (2)...
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nirijugut
ᓂᕆᔪᒍᑦ
eat, we (3+)...
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nirijusik
ᓂᕆᔪᓯᒃ
eat, you (2)...
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nirijusi
ᓂᕆᔪᓯ
eat, you (3+)...
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nirijuuk
ᓂᕆᔫᒃ
eat, they (2)...
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nirijut
ᓂᕆᔪᑦ
eat, they (3+)...
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tukisijunga
ᑐᑭᓯᔪᖓ
understand (I...)
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sinittuq
ᓯᓂᑦᑐᖅ
sleeps (he/she...)
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aullaqtuq
ᐊᐅᓪᓚᖅᑐᖅ
departs (he/she...)
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Grammar
1 » The Basic Structure of Inuktut
In Inuktut, the basic units of meaning are roots, affixes and grammatical endings.
| niri- | to eat |
| aullaq- | to depart; leave town |
| tupiq | tent |
Roots that describe nouns (people, places, animals or objects) sometimes appear on their own:
| nuna | land |
| inuk | an Inuk; a person |
| natsiq | ringed seal |
Generally, though, words are built in Inuktut by attaching affixes and endings to a root.
Here are three simple noun endings:
| -mi | in / at a place |
| -mut | to a place |
| -mit | from a place |
We can add these endings to a noun root to create a word:
| sijjami | at the shoreline |
| sijjamut | to the shoreline |
| sijjamit | from the shoreline |
Verb endings are attached to verb roots that describe actions. Here are three simple verb endings:
| -tunga | I |
| -tutit | you |
| -tuq | she / he / it |
If we add different endings to the same root, we get different meanings:
| aullaqtunga | I depart. |
| aullaqtutit | You depart. |
| aullaqtuq | He / she departs. |
Affixes are pieces of words that appear between the root and the ending. They can never begin a word. Affixes add more information about the noun or verb that is described by the root.
For example -lauq- is a verb affix that indicates that an action happened in the past:
| aullalauqtunga | I departed. |
| aullalauqtutit | You departed. |
| aullalauqtuq | He / she departed. |
In Inuktut, it is possible to build up very long words by adding a series of affixes between the root and the ending. We can end up with single words that would take an entire sentence to say in English:
qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga I’ll have to go to the airport.
2 » Simple Verb Endings
Verb roots in Inuktut describe actions or states of being. The verb ending tells us who is performing the action.
| takujunga | I see. |
In the above word, taku- describes the action of seeing and the verb ending –junga describes who is seeing.
By using different verb endings we can talk about different people doing the same action:
| nirijunga | I eat |
| nirijutit | you eat |
| nirijuq | he / she eats |
| nirijuguk | the two of us eat |
| nirijugut | we (3+) eat |
| nirijusik | you two eat |
| nirijusi | you (3+) eat |
| nirijuuk | the two of them eat |
| nirijut | they (3+) eat |
The verb endings highlighted above in blue can be added to any root that ends in a vowel. Remember Inuktut has three vowels i, u and a.
If the root ends in any other letter, we change the j that begins each of these verb endings to t:
| uqalimaaqtunga | I read. |
| sinittuq | he / she sleeps |
3 » To Be
In its simplest form, the verb “to be” is expressed with the affix -u-. It normally appears right before the verb ending:
| Piita | Peter |
| Piita + u + junga = Piitaujunga | I am Peter; My name is Peter. |
When –u– is added to a root that ends in a -k or a -q, it deletes the final consonant:
| inuk | |
| inuk + u + junga = inuujunga | I am Inuk. |
| inuujuq | He / she is Inuk. |
Remember: In Inuktut, you will almost never find more than two vowels in a row. So, if you delete the final consonant, and find that you already have two vowels, you have to use the affix -ngu- instead of -u-. This makes pronunciation easier:
| pinnguaq | toy; game |
| pinnguaq + u + juq = pinnguangujuq | It is a toy. |
Adding -u- to names coming from other languages like English, can sound quite awkward in Inuktut. If such a name ends in a vowel, it usually isn’t a problem:
| Susi | Susie. |
| Susi + u + junga = Susiujunga | My name is Susie. |
But if the name ends in a consonant, -ngu- is used instead of-u- to make pronunciation easier:
| Charles | |
| Charlesngujunga | My name is Charles. |
| Stewart | |
| Stewartngujunga | My name is Stewart. |
4 » Where are you from?
The affix -miutaq- means, someone who comes from the place described by the root of the word:
| Iqalummiutaq | someone from Iqaluit |
| Kimmirummiutaq | someone from Kimmirut |
| Kinngarmiutaq | someone from Kinngait |
| Panniqtuurmiutaq | someone from Panniqtuuq |
| Qikiqtarjuarmiutaq | someone from Qikiqtarjuaq |
As we see in the above examples, -miutaq can appear at the end of a word. But we can also build onto it to talk about different people. We do this by adding the verb -u- to the the end of -miutaq- and follow it with a verb ending:
| Iqalummiutaujunga | I am from Iqaluit. |
| Qikiqtarjuarmiutaujunga | I am from Qikiqtarjuaq. |
We can easily change the verb ending to talk about different people:
| Iqalummiutaujuguk | We (2) are from Iqaluit. |
| Qikiqtarjuarmiutaujusi | You (3+) are from Qikiqtarjuaq. |
We can also add -miutaq- to the question root nami- (meaning where?) to create a question:
| nami + miutaq + u + vit? = | namimiutauvit? |
| Where are you from? |