Some grammar and structures - part 4

[nighean-neonach]

DISCLAIMER: As I have said before, I am not going to "teach" anything here. I strongly suggest that if you are interested in learning Greenlandic you get some of the materials listed in the other topic.


Today's first topic are some simple PHRASES, which are useful for colloquial communication. I am not going into detail on grammar here.

For greeting people Greenlanders use phrases borrowed from Danish, which are written like this:

kumoorn = good morning
kutaa = god day

You can also say:
aluu = hello

For saying goodbye, the English phrase is used, sometimes written as "baj".

There is also a Greenlandic goodbye word:

Takuss' = (literally something like "see you")

~ ~ ~

To introduce yourself and get in contact with people, it's good to know how to ask for and tell your name, age, and where you come from.

Monamik ateqarpunga = My name is Mona.

The person's name goes into instrumental case, because ateqarpoq is an intransitive verb form (-punga = 1st person ending), but won't look at that in detail now (I just mention it so you will understand it later).

So to tell your name you add -mik to your name, and use this phrase.

To ask someone's name you use the following:

Qanoq ateqarpit? = What is your name?

qanoq = how?
The verb goes into 2nd person question form here.

~ ~ ~

30-nik ukioqarpunga = I am 30 years old.

In Greenlandic today Danish number words are used for numbers bigger than 12, although there are some more original Greenlandic number words (my books list them up to 20, they are based on counting fingers and toes).

So what I've written above would be said as: "tredive-nik..."

The -nik is marks the instrumental case plural.

To ask someone's age you use the following phrase:

Qassinik ukioqarpit? = How old are you?

qassit = how many, in instrumental case here.
The verb is again in 2nd person question form.

~ ~ ~

A bit of explanation about the verbs used above:

ateq = name
ukioq = winter, year

-qarpoq = to be with something, to have something

[nighean-neonach]

Some more basic phrases:

qanorippit? (shortened to: qanorik?) = how are you?

You can see the question word qanoq in there again, and the question ending for 2nd person singular.

ajunngilatit? (shortened to: ajunngik?) = are you well?

There is actually the verb "ajorpoq" = "to be in a bad state" in there, in negative form We'll look at that in detail later

ajunngilanga (shortened to: ajunng) = I'm well.

This is the answer to the above phrase, with 1st person singular negative ending.

qujanaq = thank you

illillu = same to you, you're welcome

ajunngilaq = okay (this is the same word as seen above, here with 3rd person ending "it is well")

[Steisi]

qujanaq! I'm printing these and taking them to uni today. I have 2 hours of British and Irish literature

[nighean-neonach]

Awww, British and Irish literature is not that bad

[Steisi]

*snore*

I'm more interested in linguistics, but strangely, I get all the good marks in literature

[nighean-neonach]

Hehe, when I first went to university after school, I started a teaching degree for German and English. You had to do some literature, some linguistics and some didactics / pedagogy. Everyone seemed to love literature and to be terribly afraid of linguistics... so I was quite surprised that I fell in love with linguistics, and a year later I skipped the teaching degree altogether and started focusing on linguistics *geek*

[Steisi]

I've got a question..I might be just thinking far too much in advance for my poor brain but;

If "qimmeq mikivoq" means "the dog is small" and;

"Stacymik ateqarpunga" means "my name is stacy" whereby the punga-is the first person whatsit (I'm not good with grammar )

If I wanted to say "I am small" (which I am not, but there we go) would it be "mikipunga" ?

(NB: I am not expecting a positive answer, rather "Stop trying to think, it's better that way"

[nighean-neonach]

It's mikivunga, because mikivoq has a vocal stem and endings with -v-, but apart from that your idea was absolutely right!

[Steisi]

Yaaaaaaaaaay!