Dialogue: Welcome
Vocabulary
tunngahugit
ᑐᙵᓱᒋᑦ
Welcome! (addressing 1 person)
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huna?
who?
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huuvit?
What's your name?
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huuva?
What is his / her name?
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humi?
where?
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humiutauvit?
Where are you from?
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iqalungmiutauřunga
I'm from Iqaluit.
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Aatuvaa
Ottawa
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Aatuvaamiutauȓunga
I'm from Ottawa.
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niriřunga
ᓂᕆᖪᖓ
eating, I am...
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niriřutit
eating, you (1) are...
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niriřuq
eating, she/he is...
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niriřuguk
eating, we (2) are...
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niriřugut
eating, we (3+) are...
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niriřuhik
eating, you (2) are...
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niriřuhi
eating, you (3+) are...
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niriřuk
eating, they (2) are...
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niriřut
eating, they are (3+)...
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tukihiřunga
understand (I...)
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ii
yes
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Grammar
1 » The Basic Structure of Inuktut
In Inuktitut, the basic units of meaning are roots and affixes.
| 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 |
| nattiq | 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:
| iglumi | in / at the house |
| iglumut | to the house |
| iglumit | from the house |
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 -niaq- is a verb affix that indicates that an action is going to happen in the future:
| aullarniaqtunga | I will be departing. |
| aullarniaqtutit | You will be departing. |
| aullarniaqtuq | He / she will be departing. |
In Inuktitut very long words can be put together using many affixes. We end up with single words that would take an entire sentence to say in English:
miřviliariaqarniaqtunga I’ll have to go to the airport.
2 » I am...
To introduce yourself, you can add the affix -u- to the end of your name followed by the verb ending -řunga:
| Piita | Peter |
| Piita + u + řunga = Piitauřunga | I am Peter; My name is Peter. |
The affix -u- means to be. When it is added to a root that ends in a -k or a -q, it deletes the final consonant:
| inuk | |
| inuk + u + řunga = inuuřunga | I am Inuk. |
You can change the verb ending to -juq to talk about she or he:
| inuk | |
| inuk + u + řuq = inuuřuq | He/she is Inuk |
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:
| Aimi | Amy. |
| Aimi + u + junga = Amiuřunga | My name is Amy. |
But if the name ends in a consonant, Inuktut speakers will usually change -u- to -ngu-, again to make pronunciation easier:
| Charles-nguřunga. | My name is Charles. |
| Stewart-nguřunga. | My name is Stewart. |
To ask someone their name, you start with the root kina, meaning who? You then add the affix -u- to the end of kina, followed by the question ending -vit?:
| kina + u + vit? | Susie. |
| kinauvit? | Who are you? |
3 » Where are you from?
The affix -miutaq- means, someone who comes from the place described by the root of the word:
| Talurřuarmiutaq | someone from Taloyoak |
| Kuugaarjungmiutaq | someone from Kugaaruk |
| Uqšuqtuurmiutaq | someone from Gjoa Haven |
| Iqalungmiutaq | someone from Iqaluit |
| Aatuvaamiutaq | someone from Ottawa |
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:
| Talurřuarmiutauřunga | I am from Taloyoak. |
| Kuugaarjungmiutauřunga | I am from Cambridge Bay. |
We can easily change the verb ending to talk about different people:
| Iqalungmiutauřuguk | We (2) are from Iqaluit. |
| Aatuvaamiutauřusi | You (3+) are from Ottawa. |
We can also combine -miutaq- with the question root humi- (meaning where?) to create a question:
| humiutauvit? | Where are you from? |
| humiutauva? | Where is he/she from? |
4 » Simple Verb Endings
| takuřunga | I see |
In the above word, taku- describes the action of seeing and the affix –řunga describes who is seeing.
By using different affixes, we can talk about different people doing the same action:
| niriřunga | I am eating. |
| niriřutit | You are eating. |
| niriřuq | He / she is eating. |
| niriřuguk | The two of us are eating. |
| niriřugut | We (3+) are eating. |
| niriřuhik | The two of you are eating. |
| niriřuhi | You (3+) are eating. |
| niriřuuk | The two of them are eating. |
| niriřut | They (3+) are eating. |
The affixes highlighted above in blue can be added to any root that ends in a vowel. Remember Inuktitut has three vowels i, u and a.
If the root ends in any other letter, we change the ř that begins each of these affixes to t:
| uqalimaaqtunga | I am reading. |
| maliktuq | He/she is following. |
| tikittuhi | You (3+) are arriving. |