Dialogue: Where did you put it?
Vocabulary
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ailiruk
ᐊᐃᓕᕈᒃ
Go get it (command)
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uqaalaut
ᐅᑳᓚᐅᑦ
telephone
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Grammar
double person endings
So far, we have been using simple endings with verbs:
| takujunga | I see. |
In English, if we want to talk about what we see, we would add a pronoun to the sentence to indicate an object:
| I see her. |
In Inuktitut, we add an affix to the end of the verb that indicates both the subject and the object of the sentence:
| basic ending | double person ending |
| takujunga | takujara |
| I see. | I see her. |
| maliktunga | maliktakka |
| I follow. | I follow them. |
| tusaajuq | tusaajaatit |
| She hears. | She hears you. |
Here are the simplest forms of these affixes:
| me | you | him/her/it | |
| I | takujagit I see you. | takujara I see him. | |
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| you | takujarma You see me. | takujait You see him. | |
| he / she | takujaanga She sees me. | takujaatit She sees you. | takujanga She sees him. |
Remember that if these affixes are added to roots that end in a consonant, the first letter of the affix changes to t:
| maliktara | I am following him. |
| ikajuqtaanga | She helps me. |
ALTERNATES
Be aware that you may hear or see the following alternate endings to the above in the Uqqurmiut dialect:
| takugikkit | I see you. |
| takuginnga | You see me. |
| takugaanga | She sees me. |
| takugaatit | She sees you. |
These endings vary depending on the last consonant of the root they are added to:
after Q:
| ikajuq- | ikajuraanga | He helps me. |
after T:
| tukisinngit- | tukisinngikkaanga | She doesn’t understand me. |
double person endings - asking questions
In an earlier lesson, we introduced verb endings that involve both a subject and an object:
| takujara | I see her. |
| qaujimajaanga | He knows me. |
These are used to make simple statements. There are a corresponding set of affixes that are used to ask questions that involve two people:
| qaujimavagit? | Do I know you? |
| qaujimavara? | Do I know her? |
| tukisivinnga? | Do you understand me? |
| tukisiviuk? | Do you understand her? |
| tusaavaanga? | Does she hear me? |
| tusaavaatit? |
Does she hear you? |
| tusaavauk? |
Does she hear him? |
If these affixes are added to a root ending in a vowel, they begin with the letter v:
| takuviuk? | Do you see him? |
If these affixes are added to a root ending in q, they begin with the letter q:
| ikajuqqiuk? | Are you helping him? |
If they are added to a root ending in any other consonant, they switch the final consonant to p and then begin with p:
| malippiuk? | Are you following him? |