User talk:Eequor/Archives/Inuktitut
You know that there is an encyclopedia in Inuktitut? ᓯᕗᓕᑦᑕ ᐱᐅᓯᑐᖃᖏᑦ - Sivulitta piusituqangit, edited by ᑖᒧᓯ ᖁᒪᖅ Taamusi Qumaq. It was published in 1988 and is currently out of print. I saw a copy a couple years ago, but didn't buy it. I wish I had - it's a bear to get.
Qumaq also single-handedly wrote a dictionary in Inuktitut. He was an elder in Puvirnituq who died in 1993. I don't think he spoke either English or French, but he was remarkably politically active nonetheless. He wrote extensively about Inuit traditional culture. I imagine the Avataq Cultural Institute must hold the copyright on his works. It would be a real boon if, since they aren't publishing them anyway, we might induce them to GFDL Qumaq's encyclopedia.
I'm doing a slow - but hopefully thorough - rewrite of all the articles pertaining to Canadian aboriginal languages that I know something about. Inuktitut and Inuktitut syllabics are next after I finish with Cree language and Cree syllabics. If you need to know something about Inuktitut as a language, I'm glad to help. But, I haven't spoken the language in 15 years and have only limited text resources. ᑏᑎᕉ 13:13, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- Qumaq's dictionary sounds impressive! It would be wonderful if Wikipedia could get permission to use both the dictionary and the encyclopedia.... Do you think the publisher would be inclined to give permission in the interest of preservation?
- Any help you can offer is appreciated; I doubt I'll be able to add much. I was more hopeful that I might be able to contribute sth before I found out my English - Inuit dictionary wasn't Inuktitut. At least it's a polysynthetic language; I'm really hazy on the grammar and inflection rules though.
- I see you've started an account on iu:; good! Would you be interested in adminship? ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ 16:50, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Plurality[edit]
By the way, how are the dual and plural forms constructed from the singular? ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ 17:01, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- The most regular way:
- inuk (sing) = a person or the person
- inuuk (dual) = two people
- inuit (plural) = more than two people
- For raw nouns without other derivational or inflectional morphology, the dual is formed by dropping the final consonant, doubling the vowel before it, and then adding "-k". The plural is formed by deleting the final consonant and adding "-it".
- However, nothing is that simple in Inuktitut.
- First complication: Inuktitut has a rule that forbids triple length vowels. Thus, if a word already has two vowels or a double vowel before its final consonant, one of the two vowels has to go. For the dual, you just make the last vowel a single vowel. But for the plural, the "i" in "-it" disappears:
- tui = shoulder; dual: tuik; plural: tuit
- puuq = bag; dual: puuk; plural: puut
- Also certain words have a hidden "i" at the end:
- qukiut = gun; dual: qukiutiik; plural: qukiutiit
- But then, there are problems of morphology:
| Case | Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Absolutive | delete consonant + double vowel + k | delete consonant + it | |
| Genitive-ergative | delete consonant + up | delete consonant + double vowel + k | delete consonant + it |
| Accusative | nasalises consonant + mik | delete consonant + double vowel + ngnit (or +rnik after q) | nasalises consonant + nik |
| Locative | nasalises consonant + mi | delete consonant + double vowel + ngni (or +rni after q) | nasalises consonant + ni |
| Ablative | nasalises consonant + mit | delete consonant + double vowel + ngnit (or +rnit after q) | nasalises consonant + nit |
| Dative | nasalises consonant + mut | delete consonant + double vowel + ngnut (or +rnut after q) | nasalises consonant + nut |
| Vialis (prosecutive?) |
delete consonant + kkut | delete consonant + double vowel + kkut | +tigut |
| Similaris (essive) |
+tut | delete consonant + double vowel + ktut | +titut |
- Those are the most common ways of handling number and case. Now remember that there is significant dialectical variation. This table reflects the conservative Kitikmeot dialects better than the south Baffin, Nunvik, Labrador and Greenland dialects.
- Hope that helps.
- ᑏᑎᕉ 19:49, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- Thanks! The last case there sounds like the essive case. Apparently, the one before it is called prosecutive case or vialis case. [1] [2]
- There is no consistently used terminology for the morphosyntactic components of Inuktitut. Spalding's categories are as standard as they get in Canada. If the Oqaasileriffik has a set of official names, those would be as good as any. Diderot 05:57, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)