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.