Fourth Person Inflection
In secondary clauses, third person inflexions must make a distinction between instances where the two clauses have the same subject and those where the subject is different. In English, the sentence "He is leaving because he is tired" is ambiguous unless you know whether or not the two "he"'s refer to different people. In Inuktitut, in contrast, this situation is clearly marked:
- Aullaqtuq taqagama.
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aullaq- + -tuq taqa- + -gama to leave + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific to be tired + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific causative - He1 is leaving because he1 is tired
- Aullaqtuq taqangmat.
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aullaq- + -tuq taqa- + -ngmat to leave + 3rd pers. sg. non-specific to be tired + 4th pers. sg. non-specific causative - He1 is leaving because he2 is tired
The set of suffixes used to indicate the other third person is sometimes called the third person different, but is also often called the fourth person. This additional grammatical person is a pervasive feature of Inuktitut.
Read more about this topic: Inuit Grammar
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