Our next topic here is POSSESSION:
To say that something belongs to someone, for example "the woman's dog" you have to mark this in the ending of both words:
arnaq = woman, this goes into the relative case: arnap
With most class 1 nouns you get this relative case by simply taking the plural -t away and putting -p there instead.
With words ending in -k, the plural ending -it is changed to the relative case ending -up.
With words ending in -t the plural ending -it is changed to the relative case ending -ip.
qimmeq = dog, this gets a possessive ending which marks both whose it is and how many there are. Sounds complicated? Naaaw, let's look at it in detail:
arnap qimmia = the woman's dog (literally more like "of the woman - her dog")
arnap qimmii = the woman's dogs
So -a signals "her or his one thing" and -i signals "her or his several things".
The endings -a and -i are added to the noun stem.
The noun stem is basically what you get if you take the -t away from a plural form.
(in class 1 nouns it is usually more simple, because often the basic singular form is the stem, or you get the stem as well by taking away a -q or -k, like in arnaq, but many other nouns are not that transparent).
If a noun of class 1 ends in -a, -i, or -u you just add the ending.
If a noun of class 1 ends in -q or -k, you take that away and add the ending.
If a noun of class 1 ends in -t, the endings are -aa and -ai.
There are two more basic rules you have to take care of when adding endings to words:
Rule 1:
e and o only exist before q and r. If a q or r is taken away and something else added, the e becomes i and the o becomes u.
You can see this rule at work in the word qimmeq. The plural is qimmit, where the -q is taken away, and -t added, so the e which was there in front of the q changes to i in front of the t.
Rule 2:
If a word ends in short -a, a following ending beginning in a vowel is influenced by that, meaning that the vowel becomes a as well (so that you have -aa- as a result). But I think we have no examples for that yet... Anyway, we'll come across it later.
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Sounds all weird? Well, practice it a bit with some nouns from the word box. I'll add more words there later so it doesn't get too boring.
I think that's it for today, I'll add more basic lessons this week
