Vocabulary
Greenlandic vocabulary is mostly inherited from Proto-Eskimo–Aleut, but it has also taken a large number of loans from other languages, especially from Danish. Early loans from Danish have often become acculturated to the Greenlandic phonological system, for example the Greenlandic word palasi "priest" is a loan from the Danish "præst". But since Greenlandic has an enormous potential for the derivation of new words from existing roots, many modern concepts have Greenlandic names that have been invented rather than borrowed, e.g. qarasaasiaq "computer" which literally means "artificial brain". This potential for complex derivations also means that Greenlandic vocabulary is built on very few roots which combined with affixes come to form large word families. For example the root for "tongue" oqaq is used to derive the following words:
- oqarpoq 'says'
- oqaaseq 'word'
- oqaluppoq 'speaks'
- oqaasilerisoq 'linguist'
- oqaasilerissutit 'grammar'
- oqaluttualiortoq 'author'
- oqaasipiluuppaa 'harangues him'
- oqaloqatigiinneq 'conversation'
- oqaatiginerluppaa 'speaks badly about him'
Lexical differences between dialects are often considerable. This is due to the earlier cultural practice of imposing taboo on words which had served as names for a deceased person. Since people were often named after everyday objects, many of these have changed their name several times because of taboo rules, causing dialectal vocabulary to diverge further.
Read more about this topic: Greenlandic Language
Famous quotes containing the word vocabulary:
“My vocabulary dwells deep in my mind and needs paper to wriggle out into the physical zone. Spontaneous eloquence seems to me a miracle. I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“[T]here is no breaking out of the intentional vocabulary by explaining its members in other terms.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The vocabulary of pleasure depends on the imagery of pain.”
—Marina Warner (b. 1946)