Tunumiisut

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Tunumiisut
East Greenlandic

Spoken in

East Greenland
speaker over 3000
Linguistic
classification

Tunumiisut ( German  as the tunumiit ; Kitaamiusut Tunumiusut or Tunumiutut ) is in Ostgrönland spoken dialect of Greenland .

distribution

Tunumiisut is spoken in East Greenland, i.e. in the districts of Ammassalik and Ittoqqortoormiit . A good three thousand people live in both districts, most of them in Tasiilaq , which alone has two thousand inhabitants.

history

While Poul Egede was the first to study the Greenlandic language linguistically as early as the 1730s and the first translations and the first dictionary of Greenlandic came from him during this period, the Tunumiisut remained in the dark for a long time. Until the end of the 19th century, the colonization of Greenland had only concentrated on the area from Nanortalik in the south to Upernavik in the north, the east was completely left out. Individual East Greenlanders had nevertheless got lost in South Greenland, so that Johan Petersen understood and spoke Tunumiisut as early as the 1870s. He became an important figure in Gustav Frederik Holm 's women's boat expedition and it was his uncle Johannes Hansen who wrote the first notes about East Greenland. More recently, Elisa Maĸe has been considered an expert on tunumiisut.

features

Phonological

Tunumiisut is very different from Kitaamiusut in West Greenland. East Greenland and South Greenland are located south of the iu isogloss . The only area in Greenland that is also affected by this peculiarity is the Upernavik district . In the i-dialects, the sound / u / is replaced by / i / in a large number of words. This development is most advanced in East Greenlandic, which can already be seen in the word tunumiit , which is tunumiut in West Greenlandic .

However, there are a number of other features that also distinguish Tunumiisut from South Greenlandic. The / t /, / l / and a palatalized / s / in the Kitaamiusut all correspond to an East Greenlandic / l /, which, however, goes in the direction of flap . The elongated versions of these consonants, i.e. / tː /, / ɬː / and / sʲː /, however, coincide with / tː /. This can be seen, for example, in the town name Ittoqqortoormiit , which is Illoqqortoormiut in Kitaamiusut . Further changes are a partial coincidence of / t / after uvularized vowel and / l / (uvularized / ɬ /) influenced by uvularized vowel to / s /, which can be seen, for example, in the word kangerluk ( fjord ), which is kangersik in East Greenlandic , as well at merlertoq ( child ), which becomes merserteq , both with ui alternation. In the second example, the / ɬ / is used to change the sound, but not the / t /. The uvularized / u / (/ ɔ /) becomes uvularized / i / (/ ɜ /).

Another peculiarity is the intervowel consonant weakening , which also includes the sound change / t /> / l /. Furthermore, intervowel / k / becomes / ɣ / and / ɣ / becomes / ŋ / and the / ʁ / becomes / ɴ ​​/, as for example in peerupput ( they are completely removed ), the one to peernipput , again with ui change . The change / ɬː /> / tː / also includes the equivalents / fː /> / pː /, / çː /> / kː / and / χː /> / qː /, all of which are despirantized . Word initials / s / and intervowel / sː / become / tˢ /, while West Greenlandic / tˢ / has already been deactivated to / t /.

Furthermore, in the course of the history of the language in East Greenland, there has been a strong loss of consonants. This is particularly noticeable when the consonant was between two identical vowels. inuk ( human ) becomes iik (with ui-change), ingerlavoq ( he steps ) becomes eertavoq (with ɬ-t-change and complete uvularization), kingornagut ( after ) becomes keernangit , tiguaa ( he takes it ) becomes increasing tiivaa (unwritten half-vowel between <u> and <a> is reinstated), misigisaq ( something perceived ) becomes misiilaq , nerisoq ( eater ) becomes niiloq (elimination of uvularization), tikiriarmat ( he makes him come ) becomes tikiiarmat , kiitsaarmi originated from kisitsiarmi , which in West Greenlandic is called kisimi ( he alone ) and niviarsiaq ( young girl ) becomes niiarsiaq .

Grammatically

In terms of grammar, West and East Greenlandic hardly differ from each other. One difference is, for example, that possessive suffixes are used in East Greenlandic, while this is not used in West Greenlandic, as in Piitaq orninniarpaa ( He will go to Peter. ), Whereby in Tunumiisut the absolute object (see ergative language ) is followed by a possessive suffix: Piitani orninniarpaa ( Er will go to his Peter. ).

Lexically

A number of common West Greenlandic words are not used in East Greenlandic. The dead taboo of the Tunumiit culture forbids the use of words during the period of mourning that have a connection with deceased persons, just as the personal names themselves could not be said. As a result, simple words like qajaq ( kayak ) were replaced by more general terms like saqqit ( vehicle ).

The shamans of East Greenland used to use a special lexicons which made themselves felt through a multitude of archaisms that are no longer synchronized . With these words the shamans called on the helping spirits .

literature

  • Philippe Mennecier: Le tunumiisut, dialecte inuit du Groenland oriental: description et analyze . In: Collection Linguistique De La Societe De Linguistique De Paris . tape 78 . Klincksieck, Paris 1994, ISBN 978-2-252-03042-4 (French).
  • Nicole Tersis: Forme et sens des mots du tunumiisut: lexique inuit du Groenland oriental: lexique tunumiisut-anglais-danois . In: SELAF / Société d'Études Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France . tape 445 . Peeters Publishers, 2008, ISBN 978-90-429-2077-4 (French).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Greenlandic at Ethnologue
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Palle Koch et al. (Section by Robert Petersen ): Grønland . Gyldendal , Copenhagen 1975, ISBN 978-87-00-69501-6 , pp. 194-204 .
  3. ^ Poul Egede in Dansk biografisk leksikon
  4. ↑ Johannes Petersen in Dansk biografisk leksikon
  5. ↑ Johannes Hansen in Dansk biografisk leksikon
  6. ↑ Elisa Maĸe in Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
  7. ↑ Robert Petersen: De grønlandske dialekters fordeling at oqaasileriffik .gl (.pdf)