Kalaallisut texts

Glossed & translated by Maria Bittner

Kalaaliuguit nutsikkakkalu kukkunersiorniarlugit piffissaqaruit assut qujamasuutigissagaluarpara. Nutsikkakka pillugit qanoq ikkaluartumilluunniit oqaasissaqaruit allaffigilaarniannga uunga: mbittner@rci.rutgers.edu
Kalaallisut (Eskimo-Aleut: Greenland).
•Kalaallisut is a massively polysynthetic language (hundreds of derivational affixes) with rich inflection (verbs inflect for mood, as well as person, number, and topic/background status of the subject and the object; nouns inflect for number, case, as well as person, number, and topic/background status of the possessor). There is no grammatical tense (see Bittner 2005). Syntactic dependencies (subject, object, possessor, dependent clause, etc) are marked both on the head (by agreement) and on the dependent (by case or mood). Noun phrases and complex noun-verb predicates are head-final; otherwise, the word order is 'free', i.e., optimized for discourse anaphora.
•The transcription system used here is the standard Kalaallisut orthography minus the allophonic variants (e, o, f) of the phonemes i, u, v. Otherwise, the standard orthography is phonemic.
Easy texts (beginning reader)

Piniartup uqaluttuaa (A hunter's story). A hunter makes an emergency landing on an iceberg.

Aataarsuup irnikasia (Aatarsuaq's kid son). Eskimo myth. Murder and revenge.

Aapakaaq kuukkuuriarlu (The monkey and the crocodile). Hindi animal tale.
Intermediate texts (young reader).

Mitinnguaq (Little Eider). Eskimo myth. Hubris and its cost.

Silliarnamik uqaluttuaq (The tale of Silliarnaq). Eskimo myth. People and other animals.

Paakujuk (Sooty). A husky pup and his boy.
Advanced texts (adult competence)

Appaliarsuit (Little auks). Natural history.

Kalaaq miiraqataalu (Kalaaq and his friends), by J. Platou. Daily life in Thule district of N. Greenland.

Histi piaraq tappiitsuq (The Blind Colt, by G. Rounds). From the Kalaallisut transl.

Naya Nuki (Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran, By K. Thomasma). From the Kalaallisut transl.

Piiaasup pania Ronja (Ronia, The Robber's Daughter, by Astrid Lindgren). From the Kalaallisut transl.

Qillarsuakkunik uqalualaaq (Qillarsuaq's saga), by Inuutirsuaq Ulluriaq. Story of an actual migration from Canada to Greenland, written by a Thule relative (husband to a granddaughter) of one of the participants, based on her testimony.
•Canadamit qimaanirat (Flight from Canada)
•Piuaatsup saavitaagaluarnira (Piuaatsuq's nearly fatal adventure)

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