Talk:Kalaallisut language

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[edit] Cases in Kalaallisut - no Nominative?!?

In the article, it says that there's no nominative (and accusative) case for Greenlandic nouns, which I think is rather unusual. Is there any rule how one can ditinguish between nouns that DO have a nominative case and the ones that DON'T? And, if there's no nominative for most of the words, which case is used for clearly noinative-requireing phrases, such as "Here is a bottle"?! And what case is given in Greenlandic dictionaries, i.e. how does one look up a specific word?

Any explanations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 145.254.129.204 16:53, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

I think the ergative case generally is used instead of the nom-acc system, read the page. I.e. a natural language is either ergative or nom-acc. Read the article.惑乱 分からん 16:36, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

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I heard say that Kalaallisut, along with its close relatives like Inuktitut, does not distinguish words and sentences: every (simple) sentence would consist from one complicated composed word. Is this true, or is it just a widespread urban legend?--Caesarion 22:58, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Well, it's polysynthetic. So that would depend on your definition of "word". I believe it basically sounds correct.

That's right, yes. Examples:

"kangerluk" = fjord "suffix" -suaq = big ---> "Kangerlussuaq" = the big fjord (=the name of a town in Greenland)

atuar = to read -poq = he or she --> atuarpoq = he/she reads

-tar- = use to do something ---> atuartarpoq = he/she uses to read

-fik = a place, where something happens ---> atuarfik = school (=a place where one read)

-mi = suffix for "in" atuarfimmi = in the school (-fik becomes to fimmi)

atuartoq atuarfimmi atuartartoq = the pupil uses to read in the school

This language can be analyzed as having a distinction between words & sentences. The words can, however, be practically infinitely long. Perhaps this means that the syntax is within the word. peace – ishwar  (speak) 15:26, 2005 July 31 (UTC)

[edit] Greenlandic

If we're being consistent, this should really be 'Greenlandic', in analogy with Persian language. BovineBeast 09:59, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

da:Grønlandsk, bg:Гренландски език, de:Kalaallisut, fi:Grönlannin kieli, fr:Kalaallisut, is:Grænlenska, nl:Groenlands, nn:Grønlandsk språk, sv:Grönländska, tr:Kalaallisut

I agree, this is indeed very odd and not consistent with language naming policy of Wikipedia. It is also simply wrong to call the majority language of Greenland in English Kalaallisut (although it is of course so in Greenlandic). The official name of the language in English is Greenlandic. See the official language authority in Greenland [1]. This is also against the simle rules of content writing in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Avoid neologisms.Masae 19:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Just want to say that I agree with you. It should be "Greenlandic language" in English (as well as in German, French and Turkish, in my oppinion)! — N-true 00:45, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] North American Language?

Um, I hate to break some peoples' hearts, but Greenland is a Danish island, i.e. part of Denmark. And then, isn't the language Arctic if anything? Or Scandinavian? Why does everything have to be North American?

Slight departure, I'm expecting I'm wrong, but meh. Had to point it out. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dojo99 (talk • contribs) 00:19, 4 March 2007 (UTC).

That's simply because Greenland geographically belongs to North America, not to Europe. And the language is related to the Eskimo-Alëut languages from America. The political affiliation of Greenland are not decisive. Similarly, you wouldn't call an indigenous language of French Guiana "European", just because the country actually belongs to France, politically. — N-true 00:36, 4 March 2007 (UTC)