In English, a verb must always be accompanied by a word to indicate who is doing the action:
| I eat. | She sleeps. | They depart. |
The highlighted words above are called pronouns.
Inuktut has pronouns although they aren't used as much as in English for reasons that will be explained below.
We'll start with the simplest pronouns:
| uvanga | I |
| uvaguk | we; us (2) |
| uvagut | we; us (3+) |
| ivvit | you (1 person) |
| ilissik | you (2) |
| ilissi | you (3+) |
| una | this person here |
It is important to remember that Inuktut verbs always indicate who is doing the action through the verb ending so pronouns often aren’t needed:
| nirijunga | I eat. |
| siniktuq | She sleeps. |
| aullaqtut | They depart. |
Where pronouns are used is when :
- you are talking about a person or an object without a verb
- you are adding emphasis:
| Qanuinngittunga. ivvilli? | I am fine, what about you? |
| uvanga? | (who) me? |
| uvangalu qanuinngimmijunga. | I (too) am fine. |
Notice above the use of two little affixes : -li and –lu that can be tacked on to the end of the pronouns.
-li is used in conversation when you want to change the person or object you are talking about :
| ivvit + li = ivvilli? | What about you? |
| una + li = unali? | What about this person? |
-lu is an affix meaning « and » or « too »:
| uirngaqtunga | I am sleepy. |
| uvangalu | Me, too. |
When –li and –lu are added to pronouns ending in a consonant, they change the final consonants to l:
| ivvit + li = ivvilli | What about you? |
| ivvit + lu = ivvillu | you, too. |
When the pronoun ends in a k, the final k is softened to g:
| ilissik + li = ilissigli? | What about you two? |
| uvaguk + lu = uvaguglu | we, as well. |