Would anyone be interested in doing a read-through of a Greenlandic text?
Posted: 2016-02-24, 22:14
What I mean by this is doing a sort of educational group-read. We find a text to work through, and every day post a sentence or two and our own analysis/explanation of it. Others can either use this information to help them read through the text, or they can correct any errors made.
I think this would be a fun idea because it's something learners of all levels could participate in, and it might help to make Greenlandic seem a little more accessible - there'll be reading material, grammatical explanations, vocabulary translations, etc.
I was thinking of using the Greenlandic translation of the bible, found on this website - personally I'm not hugely religious but the vocabulary can be repetitive, it's free, and if you really get stuck you can find another translation in pretty much any other language.
If you want, here's a quick example of the sort of thing I mean - and yes, there are going to be a lot of mistakes, but hopefully the point of this project will be for everybody to learn off and help each other.
1. Pileqqaarneranni Guutip qilak nunalu pinngortippai.
Pileqqaarneranni is a set phrase meaning "in the beginning". However, it may have been derived from the shorter word pileqqaaq, which means "beginner".
Guuti means "God" and is in the ergative here. This indicates that "Guuti" will be the subject of the verb used.
Qilak means "sky" and is in the absolutive case, so we know it's the object. Nuna is also in the absolutive, and therefore is also an object, and means "land" or "country". "Nuna" takes the suffix -lu, which means "and".
Pinngortippaa means "he/she creates it". -paa is a transitive verb ending indicating a third person singular subject and a third person singular object. However, there are two objects, so the ending -pai must be used instead, to indicate a third person singular subject and a third person plural object. As an extra, "pinngortippaa" can be made intransitive by using the suffix -tsivoq; pingortitsivoq means "he/she creates".
In Greenlandic, the "standard" verb forms can indicate either the present tense or the past tense. This may lead to some ambiguity, but because the adverbial phrase "pileqqaarneranni" is used in this phrase, we know that "pinngortippai" is in the past tense.
So in Greenlandic, the verse reads: Pileqqaarneranni Guutip qilak nunalu pinngortippai.
A literal translation is: In the beginning, God sky land-and created-them.
And an English translation could be: In the beginning, God created the sky and the earth.
...And that's what I mean by a read-through. A bunch of sentence-based, user-made explanations that can be freely used and corrected by others. Does anyone else think this would be fun to do? So far I've only got notes for around 10 sentences, but if I post a few a week - and other people join in - I think we'd get reading in no time. Obviously we can use any text, but something freely available online would be preferable. This is only an example
(Also -- first post! )
I think this would be a fun idea because it's something learners of all levels could participate in, and it might help to make Greenlandic seem a little more accessible - there'll be reading material, grammatical explanations, vocabulary translations, etc.
I was thinking of using the Greenlandic translation of the bible, found on this website - personally I'm not hugely religious but the vocabulary can be repetitive, it's free, and if you really get stuck you can find another translation in pretty much any other language.
If you want, here's a quick example of the sort of thing I mean - and yes, there are going to be a lot of mistakes, but hopefully the point of this project will be for everybody to learn off and help each other.
1. Pileqqaarneranni Guutip qilak nunalu pinngortippai.
Pileqqaarneranni is a set phrase meaning "in the beginning". However, it may have been derived from the shorter word pileqqaaq, which means "beginner".
Guuti means "God" and is in the ergative here. This indicates that "Guuti" will be the subject of the verb used.
Qilak means "sky" and is in the absolutive case, so we know it's the object. Nuna is also in the absolutive, and therefore is also an object, and means "land" or "country". "Nuna" takes the suffix -lu, which means "and".
Pinngortippaa means "he/she creates it". -paa is a transitive verb ending indicating a third person singular subject and a third person singular object. However, there are two objects, so the ending -pai must be used instead, to indicate a third person singular subject and a third person plural object. As an extra, "pinngortippaa" can be made intransitive by using the suffix -tsivoq; pingortitsivoq means "he/she creates".
In Greenlandic, the "standard" verb forms can indicate either the present tense or the past tense. This may lead to some ambiguity, but because the adverbial phrase "pileqqaarneranni" is used in this phrase, we know that "pinngortippai" is in the past tense.
So in Greenlandic, the verse reads: Pileqqaarneranni Guutip qilak nunalu pinngortippai.
A literal translation is: In the beginning, God sky land-and created-them.
And an English translation could be: In the beginning, God created the sky and the earth.
...And that's what I mean by a read-through. A bunch of sentence-based, user-made explanations that can be freely used and corrected by others. Does anyone else think this would be fun to do? So far I've only got notes for around 10 sentences, but if I post a few a week - and other people join in - I think we'd get reading in no time. Obviously we can use any text, but something freely available online would be preferable. This is only an example
(Also -- first post! )