The Greenlandic Language! (and a brief history of Greenland) - SpeechLeech 'G'

Info/Resources
Fortescue Michael. (1984). Learning to speak Greenlandic: a case study of a two-year-old’s morphology in a polysynthetic language. SageJournals.
Lily Kahn, Riitta-Liisa Valijarvi. (2021). West Greenlandic An Essential Grammar
Jean-Michel Huctin. (2010). Greenland Inuits and problems in language teaching
www.sorosoro.org/en/2015/09/g...
UN. (2021). The politics of language in Greenland
unric.org/en/the-politics-of-...
Oqaasileriffik.gl (Translation/resources website)
Ordbog.gl (Translation/resources website)
iserasuaat.gl/daka/ (Greenlandic/Danish word corpus)
L. Khan. (2020). The linguistic landscape of Nuuk, Greenland. UCL.
CBC News. (2014). Inuit were not the first people to settle in the Arctic
web.archive.org/web/201509241...
Alex Matthew Stefanelli. (2019). Consonant gemination in West Greenlandic. University of Montreal.
Kate Allen. (2014). When science meets aboriginal oral history. Toronto Star.
www.thestar.com/news/insight/...
/ tulunnguaq
(Learn Greenlandic)
Lola Privat Klint. (2020). The Greenlandic Paradox: Greenlandic autonomy under Danish monarchy. Malmo University.
/ learngreenlandic (Learn greenlandic)
Anna Berge. (1997). Topic and Discourse Structure in West Greenlandic Agreement Constructions. UC Berkeley.
uTalk app!
uta.lk/shawn (not sure if it still works, but if it does, you get 30% off!)
0:00 - Intro
0:20 - History of Greenland & Greenlanders
06:53 - Dialects, Orthography & Grammar
14:47 - I speak Greenlandic
17:31 - Conclusion
18:35 - Final thoughts & sources
20:17 - Nalunaarasuartaateeraaranngualioqatigiiffissualioriataallaqqissupilorujussuanngortartuinnakasinngortinniamisaalinnguatsiaraluallaqqooqigaminngamiaasiinngooq
#greenland #greenlandic #kalaallisut

[@TheKasma87]

Greetings from Greenland! I’m currently studying translation in the university of Greenland. The youTube algorithm has brought me here! Not many ‘outsiders’ speak my language. Even people who’ve moved to Greenland many years ago. This is so great! Thank you for the video! This made me smile :) Qujanaq! ❤ And pls… ‘anaq’ does not mean ‘teacher’ 😂

[@ghenulo]

That's sad, but I suppose with so many languages in the world, Greenlandic isn't at the top of many people's list to learn. I suppose we all have our own reasons to study the languages we study, so I'm sure there are people who pick Greenlandic. Heck, there are are people who study Latin, Old Norse, or Anglo-Saxon instead of a modern Romance language, a modern North Germanic language, or English (OK, I admit, I have done a little studying of Gothic, but it has no modern descendant, so perhaps that's different). Different strokes.

[@Miki.W]

Suminngaanneerpit?

[@HolgerReichardt]

Skål, Grønlænder, jeg er meget glad for at se og høre dit folk, hilsner fra Danmark))❤❤❤😊😊😊

[@hmat3255]

Holy shit, watching it as a Greenlander, my mind is blown! This is amazing and spot on! Qujanarujussuaq ❤ edit: I'll be sharing it, so other Greenlanders can see it too.

[@dorthekohler1623]

TorraK 👍🏼

[@LangXplorer]

I usually avoid reading comments in these videos, because there are usually so many native speakers or other know-it-alls that just have to looks for all the mistakes and comment on all the flaws, and not seing the amazing effort that was made to learn even a bit of the language. But here there are nothing but gratitude and praise from all the Greenlanders, which made me really happy! Great effort again, Shawn, and great job on the Greenlandic language! I am trying to learn a bit as well, I am just in love with the grammar. 😊

[@katjastefanithomassen2465]

Hi someone from greenland here. I am so thrilled about this video. Amased to see the extensive research you've done on our language and love to see the care and attention to detail you've put into learning about it aswell. Then sending it back with respect is heartwarming to me 🥰 Also the time you must have put into pronouncing the different sounds, that many non native speakers find difficult, is very commendable. Well done! 👏😊 Thank you for this video and you've gained yourself a new subscriber! Double thumbs-up!

[@Arviragus13]

Guarani also has official status in Paraguay, and is even widely spoken on a similar level to Spanish

[@imshawngetoffmylawn]

Very true, but the difference here is that in Paraguay Guaraní is co-official with Spanish, while in Greenland, as of 2009, Danish is no longer “co-official”. It’s literally just Greenlandic.

[@VenisDamalo]

@@imshawngetoffmylawn Also you said it was for 'semi-independent' countries so that doesn't include Paraguay

[@Arviragus13]

It's still pretty cool though ;)

[@AlexxJ.]

@@imshawngetoffmylawn , bogstavelig - alle grønlænder snakker dansk. Der findes hele ikke rene grønlænder, de er alle sammen blanding med dansker. Это для информации. Управление называется Самоуправление - Selvstyre.

[@pimentoso]

So Interesting! 👏🏼👍🏼

[@jpat_]

So Greenland is in a lot of ways like the Wales of the Arctic. Very cool. It fascinates me all the ways we can process language and express the same ideas. I guess languages like this tend to be very regular (at least) but they’re still impressive and intimidating for my IE brain, and I’ve got a lot of languages under my belt. I feel like Turkish is about as far as I can realistically stretch my brain in this direction in this lifetime. 🤯 Very curious about NA indigenous languages though! Break or no break, love to see a new video from you! I love this little project.

[@sila2515]

Ajunngilatit! Torrak👍 as native speaker, this is amazing, you are doing amazing! If you ever want to experience Greenland take a look at Uummannaq ≈ “the heart shape” town

[@nickbh1924]

Thanks for all the good and hard work. Greetings from 🇬🇱

[@HolgerReichardt]

Jeg elsker Grønland)))

[@HenrikKleist]

Nothing but applause to you. It's amazing how much you can learn despite lack of material availability. I know how difficult Greenlandic language is. Even though I am native and it's my mother tongue, I still struggle with the language. Not many speak with perfect grammar.

[@takpaanboskofsky]

check out the “sister language” of Kalaalliisut, Inupiat and compare the two. or even Inuktitut along with Iñupiat

[@futtimand1984]

Love to watch this as a Greenlander, great work!! 👍🏼👍🏼😊

[@derikaem8021]

Hey, your channel is so awesome. Id also love to completely expose myself to a language like Kalaallisut. In fact, I already tried. A month ago I spent 1 week in Wemotaci, Quebec, to expose myself to Nehiromowin (Atikamekw), a tiny but one of the most vital native languages in North America. It also has this polysynthetic grammar and it was mindblowing to me.

[@Polarbear2829]

WUAAW! I'm amazed! I'm Greenlandic, and I most say, your beauty good! Respect! Awesome video.

[@ghenulo]

He's an attractive man, no doubt, but his beauty isn't that good.

[@qarsoqhoeegh-dam2003]

Amazing video, very well researched and I like your examples and what you find interesting. Just a small correction: We actually have "3 numbers" instead of 2 (singular, dual, and plural). The suffix can be seen when counting to 3 - ataaseQ (1) - marluK (2) - pingasuT (3) For instance reg. drinking coffee : - Kaffisorluni (singular) - Kaffisorlunuk (dual) I don't know if it is a good example. It has also become rare to use. We really only use it when counting and when speaking to another person reg. an action. Writing as a native to kalaallisut, but I'm no language expert so I hope it is understandable :)

[@rosealenius-spencer4823]

Tolkien would have loved you!! I came across your channel on a fluke and I’m glad i did….absolutely fascinating to hear different and unique languages. Interesting channel, so I subscribed

[@user-ou9tn3uf9u]

shawn i love your videos so much!! they are so educational and i've learned a lot about linguistics & different languages because of you! i hope you don't stop making them :)) i especially appreciate your videos on indigenous languages

[@jamessperos7613]

I have a book on Central Alaskan Yup'ik and I'm beginning to learn about its features.

[@NfsLanguages]

Thank god ur back❤️

[@HassanUmer]

Welcome back!

[@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410]

Greenlandic is an absolutely fascinating language that I'd love to learn more about someday. If you ever want to make a video about Pa Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch (a German dialect in the US), by the way, that would for one thing be absolutely lovely to listen to, and I know a fair few sources that I've collected over the last two years I've been learning the language, including music, folklore, and audioclips of fluent speakers both of conservative ones and more americanised (anglicised) speakers

[@ghenulo]

Texas German seems a lot closer to Standard German than Pennsylvania German is (IIRC, the language is called Pennsylvania German where the people who speak it are known as the Pennsylvania Dutch). I'm pretty sure that Wikitongues has Pennsylvania German examples.

[@wilhelmseleorningcniht9410]

@@ghenulo Texas German is indeed a lot closer. Basically the story there is that by the time of the 19th century when German immigrants were coming to the midwestern US, Standard German had become something not only written but also spoken aloud. In many areas of German settlement, there were numerous people of different dialects and so some parents chose to teach their children Standard German instead of their own dialect to facilitate communication, almost the same reasons many people in Germany proper did. The result of this is that Texas German doesn't come from any one dialect of German per se but rather Standard German itself, albeit one that split off of German in the 19th century and has absorbed English words besides coming up with their own coinings. This is a kind of dialect leveling essentially. The same thing happened in Pa Dutch but it happened earlier and went in a different direction. The first of the Pa Dutch arrived in the late 17th century with the bulk arriving in the early to mid 18th century. Immigration would continue at a slower pace until more or less the Napoleonic wars, after which Western Expansion in the US led new German immigrants to settle in the Midwest, thus Texas German (they also came from different parts of Germany, and of course Germany actually existed now, more heavily coming from eastern and northern Germany rather than Pa Dutch's primarily southwestern, Alsatian, and Swiss roots) Enough of the Pa Dutch came from Palatine speaking areas, a particular dialect, that all the other speakers by the end of the 18th century were leveling out into that Palatine base, this is why Pa Dutch can more or less be said to be a Palatine dialect (because of historical reasons there are actually a number of Palatine derived dialects found (originally) outside modern German speaking Europe). Both the people and the language are called both Pa Dutch and Pa German. Pa Dutch is used by the Pa Dutch as the preferred term for both their language and their culture. Pa German is mostly used by academics, again to refer to both the language and the people (though there you have to make it plural and say "Pa Germans"). For example most of my ancestors came from what's now northern Baden-Württemberg, but a number were also Alsatian and Swiss. This is part of why the Pa Dutch prefer 'Dutch' over 'German,' many of them didn't originally come from Germany nor did Germany as a state even exist at the time they did. It was still HRE days back in the 18th century. The reason for Dutch specifically is because in the past and still to this day in proper nouns like Pa Dutch, the word didn't refer to the language of the Netherlands and Flanders but rather to all continental west Germanic languages. Including High German, Low German, Dutch, and (maybe) Frisian(s). The use of the word in 'Pa Dutch' is a retention of this older meaning, something which was retained longer in American English specifically. (interestingly, there are numerous idioms in English relating to the Dutch that often deal with money like "going Dutch" when getting food at a restaurant that probably derive not from the Dutch proper but from the Palatines, the group of German speaking immigrants who would become the Pa Dutch upon arriving in Pennsylvania, as they actually had a bit of a layover in England and Ireland for some time before moving on to the 13 colonies. They had a reputation for penny-pinching and being poor, something which carried over to the Pa Dutch themselves, hence the idioms)

[@philpaine3068]

People in Nunavut have told me that, when they visit Kalaallit Nunaat, they can understand older people, especially if they talk about family and traditional things, but it gets harder with younger people and talking about "modern" things. This is probably because Inuktitut has developed different words for things like "office", "washing machine", or "computer" than Kalaallisut, and because popular culture is different --- with young people influenced by Danish popular culture in Greenland, rather than Canadian popular culture. Of course, older people always find the slang of younger people confusing, even if they are in the same place. The first thing they noticed was that all the signs in Greenland are in the Roman alphabet, while the signs in Nunavut use Syllabics. The Inuit word for "computer" in Inuktitut is ᖃᕋᓴᐅᔭᖅ("qarasaujaq"), but what is the Kalaallisut word for the same thing? Amusingly, the Inuktitut word for a computer mouse actually calls it a lemming, and I'm tempted to call it that in English just to confuse people. I'm not an Inuktitut speaker, but I love the sound of the language, and I'm told that I pronounce the few words I know reasonably correctly. Anyway, now that the "war" between Canada and Denmark over that tiny island has finally been settled, maybe we can have some more travel and cross-cultural activities between our two countries.

[@bentsivertsen4968]

Greenlandic word for computer is qarasaasiaq and the word for mouse is teriaq, which does mean mouse.

[@philpaine3068]

@@bentsivertsen4968 Wonderful! That's quite close. When a new object or idea is imported into a culture, there is always a choice between adopting the foreign word or creating a word from elements of the receiving language. For example, English and most European languages call the phenomenon of "electricity" by some form of the Greek word ηλεκτρισμός. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian call it "elektricitet". But the Icelanders, always determined to do things their own way, call it "rafmagn" (which I think means "amber power" since if you rub a piece of amber with a cloth you will get a spark of static electricity). The notoriously stubborn Finns call it "sähkö" --- I don't know its etymology, but it is clearly not derived from the Greek word, or borrowed from any neighbouring language. The Estonians, who speak a language very closely related to Finnish, say "elektrit". Curiously, Canadians use the terms "electricity" in English and "électricité" in French, but when it comes to referring to the electricity on a power grid call it "hydro". The power grid in Ontario is called "Ontario Hydro" and the one in Quebec is "Hydro‑Québec". When I lived in the United States I once asked someone how much they paid for "hydro" and how big was their monthly "hydro bill".... and I got confused looks of incomprehension. But every Canadian uses this term.

[@hollowzest]

Nice

[@dorthekohler1623]

Woow you are 👍🏼 I am greenladic live in Germany 🤗

[@oqqaynewaddingxtwjy7072]

11:09 it looks like Ainu Kohi ku=i-ku rusu-i p almost same order there are many look a like words as inuit same build ,Ainu is polysynthetic Y-ran-kar-a-h-p-te-e I put my hand on my heart to salut like in middle east

[@trafo60]

Quick nitpick on the explanation of the ergative. You made it sound like the ergative system is more illogical and weird, but this really isn't this case. It's generally unhelpful to speak of 'subject' in this context. The term subject comes from the European linguistic tradition, and it mostly works well for Indo-European languages, but it kind of breaks down if you look at other languages. In fact, some modern linguistic theories don't use the term at all anymore. Instead, it's useful to think about semantic roles. This refers to the roles participants play in a given event. For transitive verbs, you will usually have one participant that is more active, voluntarily initiating an action, while the other participant is passive, undergoing a change of state. They can be called 'agent' and 'patient', respectively. The prototypical (albeit quite gruesome) example is 'I killed him'. 'I' is clearly the agent, initiating the action. 'him' is clearly the patient, undergoing a change of state of state, presumably against his will. Now, intransitive verbs can have either agents or patients. In a sentence like 'I ran', 'I' is something of an agent, initiating an action. However, things are clearly different with a sentence like 'He dies'. 'He' is hardly an agent here. In 'I killed him. He died.' he is undergoing the same event in both sentences, but marked differently. Languages generally don't bother with marking the difference between agents and patients in intransitive sentences. There's only one participant anyway, so why bother? The noun or pronoun will usually take the unmarked case - often (though not necessarily) the bare form of the noun, with any case affixes. In transitive sentences, by contrast, it's quite important to mark the different roles. We wanna know who is doing the killing and who is doing the dying, after all. Now this is where ergative-absolutive systems differ from nominative-accusative systems. The former assign a special case to the agent, leaving the patient unmarked, while the latter do it the other way around, giving a special marker to the patient. Another example that neatly demonstrates the logic is the English verb break, which can be transitive or intransitive: 'I broke the window' vs. 'The window broke.' It's clear that the window is doing the same thing in both sentences. In ergative languages, it would be in the absolutive in both cases, while 'I' would be ergative. Oh, and there are also a couple of languages that do bother with the agent/patient distinction even in intransitive sentences. This is called an intransitive split or split-S system. An example is Lakhota, where 'I ran' would be expressed with a different person marker to 'I died', the latter literally being something like 'me dies'.

[@Miki.W]

☝️❤️😁 You are good

[@Hibséire]

What’s your next video going to be about

[@imshawngetoffmylawn]

A highly unlikely story of language revitalization of a Native American language coming at you next week

[@stinannguaqborgns154]

Torrak 🤩

[@saphorr]

Your information about Paleo-Eskimo genetics is out of date; they did not die out. Quoting from David Reich's book Who We Are And How We Got Here (p. 183): "In 2017, Pavel Flegontov, Stephan Schiffels, and I confirmed that the Paleo-Eskimo lineage did not die out, and instead lives on in the Na-Dene. By examining rare mutations that reflect recent sharing between diverse Native American and Siberian populations, we found evidence for recent common ancestors between the ancient Saqqaq individual and present-day Na-Dene. In fact, the hypothesis that Paleo-Eskimo lineages went extinct after the arrival of Eskimo- Aleut speakers is even more profoundly wrong than I had originally suggested in my 2012 paper. The correct way to view the ancestry of present-day speakers of Eskimo-Aleut languages is as a mixture of lineages related to Paleo-Eskimos and First Americans. In other words, far from being extinct, the population that included Paleo- Eskimos lives on in mixed form not just in Na-Dene speakers, but also in Eskimo-Aleut speakers."

[@karencortzen4740]

We have more then 14 word for snow

[@star-xk6ic]

15:00 he's talking like a 5 year old XD

[@theholyghost]

The Vikings were the first people on Greenland. The Inuit there were second.

[@brianfencker5161]

Kina taamannak isumaliorpa ilittut ittumik naammattuuissalluni. Nunarput oqaatsivullu pillugit saqqummiussatit alutorilluinnarpakka. Pikkoreqaatit!

[@oqqaynewaddingxtwjy7072]

ab ab ah tut-a ko yan ot tu-a

[@oqqaynewaddingxtwjy7072]

Sorry I posted a mini phrase book ,your sound wound

[@gargamel3478]

To me Greenlandic sounds very like Mongolian. Probably because of the lateral affricate, but still.

[@robertrijkelijkhuizen1802]

Enjoyed the video, but "obviation" (the "4th person") should not be dismissed out of hand. It deserves a video in its own right. It solves the problem of sorting out who is being talked about in sentences like "He told me he (the 4th person) had stolen his nickname." Check out how it is used in languages such as Cree and Ojibwe (Anishinaabe).

[@user-gt3yz4tb8g]

That makes so much more sense! I definitely want to know more about how that works now. I'm a native english speaker and kind of dyslexic and I can't tell you how many times I've read english sentences like the one you wrote and thought, what the hell is going on here?

[@oqqaynewaddingxtwjy7072]

English has spaces because to give time for the words to sink in Inuit live on snow nothing to talk about everyone knows what they do before they do it everything is based on snow weather flag Japanese sun and snow

[@ghenulo]

There's the saying that German words are the same length as English words, but German just uses fewer spaces. Selbstverständlich ist die Mehrheit der deutschen Wörter nicht so lang.

[@eugenicasanovasolanes8338]

Is necessary to speak so quickly? A problem for comprehension.

[@Miki.W]

In Nuuk they talk Greenlandic an danish. They are not real Greenlandic.

[@mollof7893]

They use for /ŋ/ but for /ʁ/, why not , WHY??!!!!!!