Dialogue: Welcome
Vocabulary
Paġlagikpiñ.
Welcome! (addressing 1 person)
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kiña
who?
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Kiñauva?
What is his / her name?
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Sumi?
where?
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Sumiuguviñ?
Where are you from?
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Utqiaġvik
Utqiagvik
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Utqiaġviŋmiuguruŋa.
I am from Utqiaġvik.
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Atqasugiksuaq
Fairbanks, AK
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Akuliġaq, Siiḷvik
Selawik
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Ulġuniq
Wainwright
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Niġiruŋa.
eating, I am...
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Niġirutin.
eating, you (1) are...
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Niġiruq.
eating, she/he is...
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Niġiruguk.
eating, we (2) are...
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Niġirugut.
eating, we (3+) are...
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Niġirusik.
eating, you (2) are...
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Niġirusi.
eating, you (3+) are...
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Niġiruk.
eating, they (2) are...
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Niġirut.
eating, they are (3+)...
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ii
yes
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Grammar
1 » The Basic Structure of Iñupiaq
In Iñupiaq, the basic units of meaning are stems, postbases and endings.
| niġi- | to eat |
| aullaq- | to leave (depart) |
| tupiq | tent |
Stems that describe nouns (people, places, animals or objects) sometimes appear on their own:
| nuna | land |
| iñuk | person |
| natchiq | ringed seal |
Generally, though, words are built in Iñupiaq by attaching postbases and endings to a stem.
Here are three simple noun endings:
| ÷mi | in / at someplace |
| ÷mun | to somewhere |
| ÷min | from somewhere |
We can add these endings to a noun root to create a word:
| iglumi | at the house |
| iglumun | to the house |
| iglumiñ | from the house |
Verb endings are attached to verb stems that describe actions. Here are three simple verb endings:
| ÷tuŋa | I |
| ÷tutin | you |
| ÷tuq | she / he / it |
If we add different endings to the same stem, we get different meanings:
| Aullaqtuŋa. | I depart. |
| Aullaqtutin. | You depart. |
| Aullaqtuq. | She/he departs. |
Postbases are pieces of words that appear between the stem and the ending. They can never begin a word. Postbases add more information about the noun or verb that is described by the stem.
For example +niaq is a verb affix that indicates that an action that will happen in the future:
| Aullaġniaqtuŋa | I will depart. |
| Aullaġniaqtutin. | You will depart. |
| Aullaġniaqtuq. | He / she will depart. |
In Iñupiaq, it is possible to build up very long words by adding a series of postbases between the stem and the ending. We can end up with single words that would take an entire sentence to say in English:
Tauqsiġñiaġviŋmuŋniaŋitpalliqsuŋa. I will probably not go to the store.
2 » I am..
To introduce yourself, you can add the postbase -u- to the end of your name followed by the verb ending +ruŋa:
| Qunmiġu | Qunmiġu |
| Qunmiġu :u +ruŋa = | |
| Qunmiġuuruŋa | I am Qunmiġu. |
The postbase :u means to be. When it is added to a stem that ends in a consonant, it deletes the final consonant:
| inuk | |
| inuk :u +ruŋa = | |
| inuuruŋa | I am a person. |
You can change the verb ending to +ruq to talk about she or he:
| inuk | |
| inuk + :u +ruq = | |
| inuuruq | S/he is a person. |
If the last consonant is preceded by two vowels, you need to insert a g before adding :u.
| Iñupiaq | Iñupiaq |
| Iñupiaq :u +ruŋa = | |
| Iñupiaguruŋa | I am Iñupiaq. |
To ask someone their name, you start with the root kiña, meaning who? You then add the affix :u to the end of kiña, followed by the question ending -viñ?:
| kiña :u + viñ? | |
| Kiñauviñ? | Who are you? |
| Uyaġak :u +ruŋa = | |
| Uyaġauruŋa. | I am Uyaġak. |
Another way to introduce yourself is just to use the word uvaŋa:
| Uvaŋa...(name) | I am... |
| Uvaŋa Qunmiġu. | I am Qunmiġu. |
| Uvaŋa Uyaġak. | I am Uyaġak. |
3 » Where are you from?
The affix ÷miu means someone who comes from the place described by the root of the word:
| Utqiaġviŋmiu | someone from Utqiaġvik |
| Ulġuniġmiu | someone from Wainwright |
| Qaaktuġviŋmiu | someone from Kaktovik |
| Tikiġaġmiu | someone from Point Hope |
| Kalimiu | someone from Point Lay |
As we see in the above examples, ÷miu can appear at the end of a word. But we can also build onto it to talk about different people. We do this by adding the verb :u to the the end of ÷miu and following it with a verb ending. (We also need to insert g to prevent three vowels in a row):
| Utqiaġviŋmiuguruŋa. | I am from Utqiaġvik. |
| Ulġuniġmiuguruŋa. | I am from Waiwright. |
We can easily change the verb ending to talk about different people:
| Qaaktuġviŋmiuguruguk. | We (2) are from Kaktovik. |
| Tikiġaġmiugurusi. | You (3+) are from Point Hope. |
We can also add ÷miu to the question root su- (meaning what?) to create a question:
| su ÷miu :u +viñ? = | |
| Sumiuguviñ? | Where are you from? |
| su ÷miu :u +va? = | |
| Sumiuguva? | Where is s/he from? |
4 » Simple Verb Endings
Verb stems in Iñupiaq describe actions or states of being. The verb ending tells us who is performing the action.
| Tautuktuŋa | I see. |
In the above word, tautuk- describes the action of seeing and the verb ending ÷tuŋa describes who is seeing.
By using different verb endings we can talk about different people doing the same action:
| Niġiruŋa. | I am eating. |
| Niġirutin. | You are eating. |
| Niġiruq. | He / she is eating. |
| Niġiruguk. | The two of us are eating. |
| Niġirugut. | We (3+) eating. |
| Niġirusik. | The two of you are eating. |
| Niġirusi. | You (3+) are eating. |
| Niġiruk. | The two of them are eating. |
| Niġirut. | They (3+) are eating. |
The verb endings highlighted above in blue can be added to any stem that ends in a vowel. Remember that Iñupiaq has three vowels i, u and a.
If the stem ends in a consonant sound, we change the r that begins each of these verb endings to t:
| Taiguaqtuŋa. | I am reading. |
| Siñiktuq. | He/she is sleeping. |
| Savaktugut. | We (3+) are working. |
Following some stems that end in iq or ik, the t becomes s. (This is because it follows what is called a 'strong i'):
| Qanniksuq. | It is snowing. |
| Aġnaġiksuq. | She is a beautiful woman. |
Following some stems that end in it,the t becomes ch. (This is also because of 'strong i'):
| Maniitchunga. | I have no money. |
| Pigiitchuq. | S/he is evil. |