Greenlandic phonology facts for kids

The Greenlandic language has a special way its sounds work, which is called its phonology. This article will help you understand how Greenlandic speakers use vowels and consonants to make words. It's a bit different from English, but super interesting!

Vowels

This chart shows where Greenlandic vowel sounds are made in your mouth.

Greenlandic has three main vowel sounds: i, u, and a. This is common for languages in the Eskimo–Aleut family. When you see two vowels together, like "aa" or "ii", they are pronounced as two separate sounds, not as one long sound.

Sometimes, these vowel sounds change a little depending on the letters next to them. For example:

• The i sound can change to an e sound (like in "bed") or an a sound (like in "cat") when it's before a "q" or "r".
• The u sound can change to an o sound (like in "go") when it's before a "q" or "r".
• The a sound can become a deeper "ah" sound before "q" or "r".
• The i sound can become rounded (like saying "ew" in "few") before "p", "m", or "v".
• The u sound can move forward in your mouth (like saying "oo" in "moon" but with your tongue a bit more forward) when it's between two "t", "s", "l", or "n" sounds.

Let's look at some examples:

• The word ui means "husband" and is pronounced with the "u" and "i" sounds.
• But when you add "qarpoq" to make ueqarpoq (meaning "(s)he has a husband"), the "i" changes to an "e" because of the "q" sound.
• The word illu means "house" and is pronounced with the "i" and "u" sounds.
• When you add "qarpoq" to make illoqarpoq (meaning "(s)he has a house"), the "u" changes to an "o" because of the "q" sound.

Consonants

Greenlandic has many consonant sounds, made in different parts of your mouth:

• Labial (using your lips): like "p", "m", "v"
• Alveolar (using the ridge behind your front teeth): like "t", "s", "n", "l"
• Palatal (using the middle of your tongue against the roof of your mouth): like "j"
• Velar (using the back of your tongue against the soft part of the roof of your mouth): like "k", "g", "ng"
• Uvular (using the very back of your tongue against the uvula, the little dangly thing at the back of your throat): like "q", "r", "rn"

Here's a table showing some of the main consonant sounds:

Some sounds are special:

• The "sh" sound (like in "shoe") has mostly merged with the "s" sound in many parts of Greenland.
• The "f" sound is mostly found in words borrowed from other languages.
• The "t" sound often becomes a "ts" sound (like in "cats") when it's before an "i".
• When Greenlandic borrows words from Danish, like "baaja" (beer) or "Guuti" (God), even if they are written with "b", "d", or "g", they are often pronounced with "p", "t", or "k" sounds.

How Sounds Fit Together

In Greenlandic, words are built in a simple way. A syllable (a part of a word) can be just a vowel, or a vowel with a consonant before or after it. For example, "a", "pa", "ap". Sometimes, you can have two vowels together, like "aa".

Words usually start with a vowel or certain consonants like "p", "t", "k", "q", "s", "m", "n". They usually end with a vowel or "p", "t", "k", "q", or sometimes "n".

When two consonants come together from different parts of a word, they often change. The first consonant will become like the second one, making a longer, "doubled" sound. This is called a geminate consonant. For example, if you have a "g" sound followed by an "l" sound, they might combine to make a long "ll" sound.

Word Rhythm and Sound

Greenlandic doesn't have "stress" in the same way English does, where you emphasize certain syllables. Instead, the rhythm of a word depends on how long sounds are held and how the pitch of your voice changes.

• Heavy syllables are those with long vowels or those followed by a doubled consonant. These syllables might sound like they are "stressed" because they are held longer.
• Doubled consonants (geminates) are pronounced for a longer time, almost like saying the sound twice.

When you say a sentence in Greenlandic:

• For a normal statement, your voice usually goes up on the third-to-last syllable, then down on the second-to-last, and up again on the very last syllable.
• For a question, your voice usually goes up on the second-to-last syllable and then falls on the last syllable.

How Sounds Change When Words Combine

One of the most interesting things about Greenlandic is how sounds change when you add endings (suffixes) to words. This is called assimilation. It means that sounds become more like their neighbors.

For example, in many Inuit languages, the word for "house" is iglu. But in Greenlandic, because of sound changes, it became illu. The "gl" sound changed into a long "ll" sound. Another example is the name of the language Inuktitut. In Greenlandic, it becomes Inuttut because of these sound changes.

When a word ending (suffix) that starts with a consonant is added to a word that ends with a consonant, the first consonant often changes to become like the second one. This creates a doubled consonant sound. For example, if a word ends in "p" and the suffix starts with "l", the "pl" might become "ll".

These sound changes can be different depending on which part of Greenland you are in. For instance, in East Greenlandic, some of these doubled "ll" sounds have changed even further to "tt" sounds. That's why the town Ittoqqortoormiit is spelled that way in East Greenlandic, but would be Illoqqortoormiut in West Greenlandic.

See also

• Inuit phonology