Grammar » 38 » Describing People & Things

Inuktut has different ways to describe people or things.  The first is through words like these:

takijuq	(someone/something) tall; he/she/it is tall
uqumaittuq	(something) heavy; it is heavy
akitujuq	(something) expensive; it is expensive
naittuq	(someone/something) short;  he/she/it is short
piujuq	(something) good; it is good

At first glance, these words behave like verbs. We can change the ending to dual or plural and get:

takijuuk	They (2) are tall.
takijut	They (3+) are tall.
uqumaittuuk	They (2) are heavy.
uqumaittut	They (3+) are heavy.

These descriptive words must reflect the number of the word that they describe:

Qarasaujaq akitujuq.	The computer is expensive.
Qarasaujaak akitujuuk.	The two computers are expensive.
Qarasaujait akitujut.	The computers (3+) are expensive.

in other ways these descriptive words behave like nouns. You can, for example add noun endings to the words above:

piujumik	a good one
itijummi	in the deep one
naittumut	to the short one

When these words describe a person or thing ending in -mik, they also have to take -mik:

qamutaujaq uqumaittuq	The snowmobile is heavy.
qamutaujarmik uqumaittumik	a heavy snowmobile

 

When we use descriptive words to talk about you or me, we also have to add the verb affix -u- which is only used after noun roots:

takijuq + u + jutit =
takijuujutit	You are tall.
naittuq + u + junga =
naittuujunga	I am short.