Verbs in Iñupiaq have endings that tell us who is doing a particular action.
| Niġiruŋa. | I am eating. |
| Siñiktuq. | She/he is sleeping. |
| Aullaqtut. | They depart. |
Iñupiaq does have words that mean I, you, he, we, etc. In English, we call these personal pronouns. Here is a sample:
| uvaŋa | I |
| uvaguk | we; us (2) |
| uvagut | we; us (3+) |
| ilviñ | you (1) |
| ilvisik | you (2) |
| ilvisi | you (3+) |
Because Iñupiaq verb ending already tells us who is doing an action, personal pronouns aren’t used as frequently as they are in English.
- you are talking about a person or an object without a verb
- you are adding emphasis:
| Nakuuruŋa, ilviḷḷi? | I am fine, what about you? |
| Uvaŋa? | (who) me? |
| Uvaŋalu nakuuruŋa. | I (too) am fine. |
Notice above the use of two little endings : +li and +lu that can be tacked on to the end of the pronouns.
+li is used in conversation when you want to change the person or object you are talking about :
| ilviñ + li = ilviḷḷi? | What about you (1)? | |
| uvaŋa + li = uvaŋali? | What about me? |
+lu is an ending meaning « and » or « too »:
| Uiñġaqtuŋa. | I am sleepy. |
| uvaŋalu | Me, too. |
When –li and –lu are added to personal pronouns ending in ñ, they change the final consonants to ḷ:
| ilviñ + li = ilviḷḷi? | And what about you? |
| ilviñ + lu = ilviḷḷu. | You, as well. |
When these enclitics are added to personal pronouns ending in k, the final k becomes g:
| ilvisik + li = ilvisigli? | And what about you two? |
| uvaguk + lu = uvaguglu. | And the two of us. |