Tusaalanga Inuktitut

THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF INUKTITUT

 

In English, the basic unit of meaning is the word. Each word (generally) expresses a separate idea:

The dog sleeps under the tree

 

In Inuktitut, the basic units of meaning are roots and affixes.

Roots involve basic vocabulary and always appear at the beginning of words in Inuktitut. Here are some examples:

niri-	aullaq-	tupiq
to eat	to leave town	tent

Affixes are attached to the end of roots and other affixes. They can never begin a word. Here are three simple affixes:

-tunga	-tutit	-tuq
I	you	she or he

 

If we add these affixes to the same root, we get different meanings:

aullaqtunga	aullaqtutit	aullaqtuq
I leave	you leave	she leaves

 

...and if we throw in the affix -lauq-, which marks the past tense, we get:

aullalauqtunga	aullalauqtutit	aullalauqtuq
I left	you left	he / she left

Because a whole series of affixes can be put together in a long string, a single word in Inuktitut can be used to express something that, in English, would take an entire sentence:

qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga I’ll have to go to the airport.