Some grammar and structures - part 2

[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.

This is the first topic on basic patterns and structures of Greenlandic.

"ATTRIBUTE VERBS"

To express the character or nature of a certain thing or person, you mostly use "attribute verbs", which are like an adjective + is

mikivoq = something is small.
qimmeq = dog

qimmeq mikivoq = the dog is small.

Easy, isn't it?

Now, if you want to put this as a question, the ending of the attribute verb changes:

qimmeq mikiva? = is the dog small?

You can answer with:
suu = yes
naa(mik) = no

How to say that the dog is not small will be in another lesson

But we can try plural:

qimmit mikipput = the dogs are small.

You see that the ending of the attribute verb changes from -voq to -pput.
For the plural question form it changes to -ppat:

qimmit mikippat? = are the dogs small?

Right, that's it for now There are some nouns and attribute verbs in the word box, so we can practice a bit. How about inventing some more sentences? You can also write some in English and someone else can then try to translate them.

[Steisi]

Hellooo

My sentences that I made *proud*

arnaq silatuvoq = The woman is clever
biilit akisupput = Cars are expensive
kangerluk takiva? = Is the fjord long?
ikinngutit qasuppat? = Are the friends tired?

Hope they're right!

Someone can translate:

The dog is clever.
The wife is tired.

[nighean-neonach]

Stacy silatuvoq! (I'll explain how to say "You are clever" another time)

It's good how you used "takivoq", I think this word is mostly used for distances, not for timespans or size of people or animals. I will add that to the translation in the word box.

[Steisi]

What can I say, I'm almost a native Greenlander

I like how it gets put together, it's pretty.

[nighean-neonach]

I like how it gets put together, it's pretty.

I like that, too, and that's how all things work in Greenlandic. The words just get longer and longer but basically it's like Lego pieces or a jigsaw puzzle or like connecting cables with certain plugs.

[Steisi]

For someone who has no logic at all, I find it really fun Thank you so much for writing those things, I'm starting Greenlandic today

by the way, do you happen to know which sound corresponds to the welsh ll-sounding noise in greenlandic?

[nighean-neonach]

Yes, there's this ll-sound in Greenlandic as well. Just like in Welsh, where you see double l, pronounce it like that

I was wondering if I should write some basic stuff about pronunciation and word stress, but there is something in Qaagit anyway, and you'll get that from me, and I don't know if anyone else is interested at the moment, but we can always add it later

Right, got to get my kitchen tidied up, no more Greenlandic today

[nighean-neonach]

Someone can translate:

The dog is clever.
The wife is tired.

Obviously one else wants to do this

Qimmeq silatuvoq.
Arnaq qasuvoq.

What about:

The sea is deep.
The night is dark. (ain't I poetic? )
The car is yellow.
The airport is big.
The house is small.
The woman is pretty.
The fjord is long.

[Vertaler]

The sea is deep. - [spoiler]Imaq itivoq.[/spoiler]
The night is dark. - [spoiler]? taarpoq.[/spoiler]
The car is yellow. - [spoiler]Biili aappaluppoq.[/spoiler]
The airport is big. - [spoiler]Mittarfik angivoq.[/spoiler]
The house is small. - [spoiler]Illu mikivoq.[/spoiler]
The woman is pretty. - [spoiler]Arnaq kusanarpoq.[/spoiler]
The fjord is long. - [spoiler]Kangerluk takivoq.[/spoiler]

Weird words, I don't recognize anything except "biili". Sounds like a lot of vocabulary to learn.

[nighean-neonach]

night = unnuaq, maybe I forgot that in the word box.

Yeah well, it's different from Indo-European languages But you can get used to it rather quickly... I found that after typing the words here once or twice I already remembered them much bettern than before

[Vertaler]

Yeah well, it's different from Indo-European languages ;) But you can get used to it rather quickly... I found that after typing the words here once or twice I already remembered them much bettern than before :)

Same with Finnish and Estonian, but there's at least quite an amount of loan words and loan translations in those ... but you're right, in part 8 I just had to look up about 75% of the words *g*

[nighean-neonach]

Greenlandic does have loan words, especially when it comes to technical terms etc.

Do you learn both Finnish and Estonian? I'd like to learn a bit of Estonian, because I like travelling in the Baltic countries (I speak a bit of Lithuanian), and Finnish is on my list as well, but right now I'm occupied with Sámi, and I think one Finno-Ugrian language is enough at the moment