So far: lesson 1, lesson 2, lesson 3, lesson 4, lesson 5, lesson 6, lesson 7, lesson 8, lesson 9 and Greenlandic stress
Learn this course’s words with this memrise course.
What you will learn: eating and food #1, Possession #1, a little here and there
In lesson 9 we spoke about drinking and beverages and learned some of that vocabulary. What comes with drinking? Right, eating. So, here is some useful vocabulary that will help you in Greenland if you’re starving. I will also do some grammatical excursuses while explaining.
The three daily meals are called:
ullaakkorsiutit (plural) - breakfast
ulloqeqqasiutit (plural) - lunch
unnukkorsiutit (plural) - dinner
Funnily, all of them are in the plural but only ullaakkorsiutit also has a singular with an own meaning: ullaakkorsiut means radish.
In order to say “XX is eating breakfast” you just have to exchange the ending “-siutit” with “-siorpoq”.
ullaakkorsiorpoq - s/he eats breakfast
ulloqeqqasiorpoq - s/he eats lunch
unnukkorsiorpoq - s/he eats dinner
Of course, -poq is the regular verb ending and can be used for any person:
Ulloqeqqasiorpunga. - I eat lunch.
Unnukkorsiorpisi? - You guys eat dinner?
As you see, we have the endings -sior- and -poq. The latter can be replaced by other endings you have already learned or can be expanded by other verbal meanings like negation or “to want something” etc.:
Ullaakkorsiunngilatit. - You don’t eat breakfast. (-nngilaq is swallowing)
Ulloqeqqasiussaagut. - We will eat lunch. (-ssaaq is swallowing)
Unnukkorsiorusupput. - They would like to eat dinner. (-rusuppoq is swallowing)
Ullaakkorsiulerpoq. - S/he is about to/is beginning to eat breakfast. (-lerpoq is swallowing)
Unnukkorsioreerpugut. - We finished eating dinner. (-reerpoq is swallowing)
And now comes the morphological monstrosity:
Ullaakkorsioreerusussanngilanga. - I won’t want to finish eating breakfast. (ullaakkorsior+reer+rusup+ssaa+nngila+nga)
Even though it is still about eating, these can be useful along the way:
Kaffisoriartorta! - Let’s drink a coffee.
Paajatoriartorta! - Let’s drink a beer.
You already know the ending -sorpoq or -torpoq for drinking the noun before it. -riartorpoq (QR!) is an ending we will encounter in future lessons. -riartoq- means “going in order to”. So far, kaffisoriartoq means “going in order to drink a coffee”. The ending -ta is the optative for the first person plural which can be easily translated as “Let’s do ...”. Kaffi+sor+riartoq+ta --> Kaffisoriartorta!, thus, means “Let’s go and drink a coffee”.
Ataasinnguartoriartorta! - Let’s have a little drink! (ataasi - one, -nnguaq - little)
Saqisoq - waiter/waitress
-soq or -toq is a participal mood and very versatile ending that can make nouns out of verbs. saqivoq as a verb means “to wander around” or also “to help with something”. The ending -toq then adds the meaning “the one that wanders around”.
Bestiilerusuppunga. - I want to order. (bestiile- comes from Danish at bestille)
pisiariniarpaa, allatsippaa - s/he is ordering something (these are the usual verbs for “ordering”; -paa is the transitive ending for 3.Sg.--ordering-->3.Sg. that replaces the intransitive ending -voq. This will be a topic of further lessons.)
imissut - the order
regnigni - the bill (from Danish “regning”)
Regningi pisinnaavugut? - Can we please get the bill? (pi- means “to get something” and -sinnaavoq- you already learned - “can / to be able to”)
Qaalaaruk. - Could you please bring me something? (qaa- - come, -laar- - little (here: please), -ruk - transitive ending 2.Sg.--->3.Sg.)
sioraasat (plural) - sugar
tarajuusivik - salt shaker (tarajuaqqat - salt (pl. taratsut))
qasilitsulivik - pepper shaker (qasilitsut (plural) - pepper)
Tarajuusivik qaalaaruk? - Could you please bring me the salt shaker?
Tass’ mamaq! - That is delicious! (tass’ and mamaq’ are colloquial shortenings)
Mamaraajuk? - Was it delicious? (-raajuk means “Do you think it is ...?”, which is short for -rivajuk)
Mamarpoq. - It was/is delicious.
Nerilluarisi. - Enjoy your meal. (neri- is eating, -lluaroq - doing good)
-torusuppunga / -sorusuppunga. - I would like to have ... . (-torpoq/-sorpoq not only means “to drink something”, as you have learned in lesson 9, but also “to eat something”!)
Bananisorusuppunga. - I would like to have/eat a banana.
And for vegetarians and vegans:
Neqeqanngitsumik nerisassaqarpa? - Do you have vegetarian meals?
(neqi - meat, -qarpoq - s/he has, -nngi - not, -tsoq - nominaliser, -mik - instrumental case, neqi+qar+nngi+tsoq+mik --> neqiqanngitsumik; nerisassat (plural) - meal, -qarpoq - there is / (s/he/it has), -pa - questioning form 3.Sg.; Neqiqanngitsumik nerisassa? - lit. Are there meals not having meat?)
neqitornaveersaartoq - a vegetarian (lit. someone who is striving not to eat meat)
naatitaq - vegetable (plural naatitat)
naasoq - plant (pl. naasut)
naasuinnarnik nerisalik - a vegetarian (naasut - vegetables, -innaq - only, -nik - INSTR. for indirect object; neri- - to eat, -tar- / - sar- - doing something habitually, -lik - someone or something which ...; lit. someone who is habitually eating only plants) [listed as vegetarian, but could be probably applied to vegans, too]
neqitornaveersaartoq - a vegetarian (lit.someone who strives not to eat meat)
naatitaannarnik nerisarnermut - vegetarian (adjective) (naatitat - vegetables, -innaq - only, -nik - INSTR. for indirect object; neri- - to eat, -sar- / -tar- - doing something habitually, -neq - NOMINALISER the ...-ing, +mut - illative case (for, to); lit. for the act of habitually eating only vegetables) [Again, this could be actually used as the adjective “vegan”, too. If you want to be specific, as veganism and its dietary implications probably aren’t well known among Greenlanders, you can and should elaborate explicitly what you are not eating.]
neqitortoq - meat eater
[Thanks, Tulunnguaq, for the further explications of these words.]
If you want to complain about your food here you go:
Mattusuujuvoq. - It is tough.
Nillerpoq. - It is cold.
Aapaartuuvoq. - It is underdone.
Mamanngilaq. - It wasn’t delicious.
Nerisassara tikinngilaq. - I haven’t got my meal. (nerisassat (plural) - meal, -ra is the possessed form for the first person singular which we will learn in this lesson)
Utoqqatserpunga, ...-qanngilanga. - Excuse me, I haven’t got ... . (you have already learned the ending -qarpoq for “to have ...”)
In lesson 11 we will finish the thematic chapters drinking and food because for many sorts of food you first need to learn about the genitive which we are going to do then.
In lesson 7, we started the topic of noun classes and I mentioned that nouns can be declined for number (singular and plural), case (absolutive, instrumental etc.) and optionally for personal possession. In this lesson we will look into the possessed forms of singular and plural nouns in the absolutive case. The sad news is that most cases have their own endings for each person and number. But don’t worry, we will do this step by step and we start with the most logical one, the absolutive case which you can find in the dictionary and with intransitive verbs.
Another quirky thing about Greenlandic is that morphologically, it has four persons in the singular and plural each. The fourth person is always the reflexive form of the 3. person which you can translate in most case with “his/her/its own” or “their own”.
Here is the table with all the forms (possessor is the one who possesses and the possessum is the thing that is possessed):
As you can see, in many cases there are two forms. We will now step by step look into them.
1. The rules concerning weak and strong nouns also apply here.
Weak nouns lose their final consonant when a consonant-initial ending is added (the exceptions here are -ga/-ra and the forms with inserted -( r )- before the endings).
Strong nouns either assimilate their final consonant to an additive, consonant-inital ending or loose it with swallowing endings.
Also, inner word changes occur here, too, for example gemination, strong nouns having different stems etc. (But there are still some exceptions we will look into in future lessons.)
2. The consonant-initial endings are additive in the singular (exceptions are -ga/-ra and -ni) and swallowing in the plural. The vowel endings are swallowing.
bananit - your banana (banani+t), angutikka - my men (anguti+kka)
angutaa - his/her/its man (anguti+a --> anguta+a)
3. First person singular -ga / -ra is a swallowing, fusional ending.
If a noun ends on a -q the -q is swallowed and the ending is -ra. In all other cases you add the swallowing ending -ga. (There is a morphonological rule that in many cases the consonant cluster -rg- becomes -r- (thus the term fusional, for they fuse together); NB: the final -q often becomes -r in front of consonants, as you know.)
qimmera - my dog (qimmeq+ga - qimmer+ga - qimmera), but: paniga- my daughter (panik+ga)
4. The second person singular ending -(i)t follows the same rules as the absolutive/relative plural.
Weak nouns: Nouns ending on a vowel just add -t (illu: illut - your house / houses), nouns ending on -q or -k replace them by -t (qimmeq: qimmit - your dog / dogs), nouns ending on -t mostly add -it (angut: angutit - your man / men).
Strong nouns: The last consonant is swallowed and -it is added (panik: paniit - your daughter / daughters).
So, the absolutive/relative plural form and the absolutive possessed form for the 2nd person singular are just the same.
5. Some nouns on -i change it to -a- in front of the 3. person endings -a / -at.
ini - room becomes inaa - his/her/its room (ini+a --> inaa), inaat - their rooms
6. When the noun ends on a long vowel (also after the final consonant has been swallowed) there is a -v- inserted before endings starting with vowel.
angajoqqaat - parents, angajoqqaavi - his/her/its parents
7. In the 4th person singular reflexive the -ni is swallowing in both singular and plural except for t-stems.
After t-stems there is actually a vowel -i that is left out in the absolutive form but appears in many other forms. Nowadays, there is a lot of variation whether -ni is assimilating or additive to the final -t. So, both are possible but the assimilating form is more common.
aallaat - gun (ABS.) (actually *aallaati) becomes either aallaanni - his/her own gun/guns (aallaati+ni --> aallaat+ni --> aallaan+ni)) or aallaatini - his/her own gun/guns (aallaati+ni)
8. The recessive vowel -i after t-stems becomes -a- before vowel-initial endings.
angutaa - his/her man (anguti+a)
angutai - his/her men (anguti+i)
9. The bracketed inserted -( r )- in some forms appears after words ending on vowel and after t-stems.
illorput - our house, illorsi - your (pl.) house, illortik - their own house
After t-stems the recessive -i appears again:
anguterput - our man, angutersi - your (pl) man, angutertik - their own man
10. The 3. person plural ending -at instead of -i always comes after an -a.
qitornaq - child, qitornaat - their children (qitornaq+at)
ini - room, inaat - their rooms (see rule 5)
But: qimmeq - dog, qimmii - their dogs (QR-rule!)
11. After some words ending on -i the 4. person plural reflexive becomes -sik.
kaffisik - their own coffees
angutitik - their own men
I hope most of this is clearer now. Here and there, there might be some mistakes as my grammar sources haven’t been quite clear about some special cases. But this is the general idea of the possessed nouns in the absolutive case. Now you can form sentences like:
Qimmera sinippoq. - My dog sleeps.
Angutersi atuarpoq. - Your man reads.
Angajoqqaatik kaffimik imissapput. - Their own parents will drink coffee.
Funnily, these endings are almost the same that occur in transitive verbs with the object in the third person. We haven’t spoken about it yet but instead of Bananimik nerivoq. - S/he eats a banana. you can also say Banani nerivaa. - S/he eats the banana. The last sentence is a real transitive sentence with the object in the absolutive case. The common verb ending in those sentences isn’t -vu- as in nerivoq (QR-rule neri-vu-q) but -va-. When you look into our table above the ending -a comes when the possessor (here the acting person) is the third person and the possessum (here the recipient or sufferer) is in the third person. You could also say Nerivakka. - I eat them. because the possessor is the 1. person singular and the 3. person is in the plural. (Remember, these forms only work for 3. person objects, either singular or plural.) You can now build all the forms with 3. person objects: Nerivavut. - We eat them. Nerivarput. - We eat it. etc.
The reason for this seemingly coincidence is that historically these sentences come from a structure formed with the possessed form of the participle preterite passive. Thus, a long time ago you would have used a structure like “my eaten bananas is they” for I ate the bananas - Bananit nerivakka.
The 10th lesson is supposed to be the last lesson of the first part after which we make a little break for a recap because thematically we will go on with topics that are slightly more advanced. Nothing to be worried about, you’ll understand it, I promise! But we will look into the other cases, into the ergative and transitive structure of Greenlandic and further investigate the possession forms and other endings. Remember, Greenlandic consists of almost 50:50 proportion stems:affixes. There is a long way ahead of us but it’ll be fun, I promise that, too! :)
