This book ("A Meeting on the Bus") is about a Greenlandic woman who went to Copenhagen to live with a Danish lover, but whose life there is less than happy.

The extracts below in bold are the from the first two pages of the book. Each extract is followed by vocabulary notes and in the case of the first three extracts, a suggested English translation.

Andy Buisson

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Ullut ilaanni illoqarfimmi suliffinni inerama
pisiniaqattaalaasinnarlunga angerlarniarlunga Nørreportimut
ingerlavunga, taanna bussit assigiinngitsorpaaluit aqqutigisarmassuk
ikiartorfigigajukkakku.

Ullut: days
ilaanni: on one/some (of them)
illoqarfik: town
-mi: in(/at)
suliffik: workplace
-n-ni: at my
ini-: to be finished/to finish
-rama (/-gama): when (past tense) (/because) I ...
pisinia-: to go shopping (pi-: thing, -si-: buy, -nia- to go
and.../to intend to...)
-qattaa-: repeatedly/the whole time
-laar-: a little (also softens the tone)
-sinnar: after doing X (NB not to be confused with -sinnaa: can)
-lunga: while I ... / and I ...
angerlar-: to go home
Nørreport: a street in Copenhagen
-i- : epenthetic vowel to allow -mut ending to be added to foreign
word/word ending in a consonant
-mut: to
ingerla-: go (on foot)
-vunga: I ... (indicative)
taanna: this/that
bussi(t): bus(es)
assigiingitsut: different
-paaluit: a great many
aqqutigi-: travel along it (lit. to have it as a road)
-sar- (-tar-): tend to (frequentative)
-massuk: because (when) they...it
iki- : get on board
-artor-: to intend do/make an effort to
-figi: to have something as a place of...
-gaju(k)-: a lot
-kakku: because (when) I ... it

"One day, when I was finished at work in town, and I was heading
home after doing a bit of shopping, I walked to Nørreport, since I
often went there to catch a ride because of the many different buses
that passed by there."Aarimmi linie 5 tikiuppoq, tassungalu ikivunga, bussi taanna
angerlartillunga ilaaffigalugu pitsaanerpaat ilagimmassuk

The last wordlist was in order of the words appearing. This one is
in alphabetical order and I have omitted words/particles explained
in the previous list to make things less straightforward. If want to
try this without the translation don't look below the wordlist. If
you have difficulty with just this I give a breakdown and a
translation with some hints as to how to analyse the bits, the last
few words are quite tricky:

aarimmi: just as I thought!, as you can see!
-(f)figi- (-ffigaa): to have X as the place/object of my action
-gi-: to have X as...
iki-: to get on board (object takes -mut/nut case)
ila: part
ilagi-: to have X as a part/as one of it
ilaa-: to be a passenger
linie 5: "line 5" i.e. the number 5 bus
-lu: and
-lunga: while [unstated subject] [verbs] me (NB note that in the
last sentence -lunga meant "while I [verb]". It has two meanings
intransitive where -nga means "I", and a transitive meaning where
the ending signifies the object, "me")
-nerpaaq: most(plural: -nerpaat)
pitsaa-: good
tassunga: to this (=tassa+mut)
tikiu*-: to have arrived (cf tikippoq: to come)
-ti*: to cause



Word for word breakdown

"Just.as.I.thought line 5 has.arrived, to.this-and board-I, bus this
go.home-cause-while.me [i.e. taking me home] be.a.passenger-
have.as.place.of-while.it(object) [having it as my transport] good-
most(pl) [the best ones] part-have.as-because.they...it [because
they (the best ones) have it as part of them , as one of them i.e.
because it is one of the best]

"Just as I thought, the number 5 had arrived, which I boarded,
because this bus was one of the best to be taken home by (to go home
on)."

Ualeq aallartilaaginnarsimavoq, taamaammat angallatit suli
inoqaruluunngillat. Issiaviit sanileriittarissat ilaanni arnaq
kalaaliugunartoq kisimiilluni issiasoq takullugu sanianut
ingikkiartorpunga.

aallarti-: begin
angallat: vehicle (plural -it)
arnaq: woman
-ginnar: only/just (same as -innar, -annar)
-gunar: apparently, seemingly
ingippoq: to sit down
ino-: stem of inuk: person
issiavik: seat (plural -[/k/]it)
issiavoq: to be sitting
kalaaleq: greenlander (stem: kalaali-)
-kiartor, iartor, jartor, riartor: to go [there] to ...
kisimi: alone
kisimiippoq: to be alone
-luni: while [subject of main verb] does X (kontemporativ 4ps)
-qa-: to have, to exist, there is, there are
-riaq: the place where... (plural -rissat)
-ruloor: hard, forcefully (ruluu- where final "r" is removed by
following affix)
sani: side
sanileriipput: to be next to one another, side by side
-sima-: perfective affix: similar to "to have X'd".
-soq/toq: nominal verb form: who does X, that does X.
suli: still/yet
taama: so, such;
taamaappoq: to be such;
taamaammat: because it was such= therefore
taku- : see
-tar-/-sar-: affix denoting a habitual/usual action
ualeq: afternoon

Further comments:

-ruluu- in this case I believe expresses the fact that later in the
afternoon there would normally be a lot of people in the buses (but not
yet).
In this case the sitting down by her side is as a result of what she has
seen, so I would put that afterwards in the translation.
Sanianut = sani-a-nut > to her side.
sanileriit-ta-rissat: the places which were [habitually] side by side,
i.e. one of the row of double seats in a bus.
The subject of kisimiilluni agrees with issiasoq, which is the main verb
for that phrase of the sentence, so the rule isn't broken.

"The afternoon had only just begun, so there was not yet a great number
of people in the vehicles [buses]. Seeing a woman who appeared to be
Greenlandic sitting alone on one of the double seats, I went to sit down
next to her."

Igalaap killingani issiavoq silammut isigaluni. Paasivara
ilisarisimanngikkiga. Taamaattoq sanianut inginniarpunga
kalaaliusorilluinnarakku nalinginnaq oqaloqatigiissinnaagatta, soorlu
taamaakkajuttartugut. Aammami angallatini taamaattuni
ingerlarusaarluni oqaloqateqarluni ingerlaneq sivikinnerusutut
misigisimanartarmat


aamma: and
aammami: and indeed
-gatta/ratta/kkatta: because we...
igalaq : window (-ap: relative case)
ilisarisimavaa: know X
isigaaq: look (from "isigavoq")(isigaa: look at X)
-kaju*-: often (cf -gaju* in extract 1)
-kkiga/-giga/riga: transitive nominal mood, (that) I...her
killeq: edge/border (killinga: its edge/border)
-ki*: small/few > sivi-kip-poq: short lasting
-mat: because it...
misigi-: feel
nalinginnaq: general/one or other
-nar-: "be such as to". So in the example the
translation is along the lines of: "because travelling on a slow bus
having a chat with someone is such as to make the journey feel
shorter".

-neq/-neruvoq: more
oqaloqat: someone to speak with
oqaloqatigiip-put: they have a conversation (plural subjects only)
paasivaa: understand it/realise it
-qat: a fellow X
-rakku/gakku/kkakku: because I...her
-rusaar-: without hurry
silak: sky (silammut: outside)
-sinnaa: can
sivisooq: long lasting
soorlu: just like, as if
-sori-: think that
-sutut: intransitive nominal mode -soq + "aequalis" case -tut.
taamaappoq: be such (nominal mode>taamaattuni: in such (plural))
taamaattoq: however (set phrase)
-tugut: intransitive nominal mode, (that) we...
-tut/-sut: "aequalis" case = as X (also used of languages:
kalaallisut oqarpunga - I speak as a Greenlander i.e. I speak
Greenlandic)

Notes:

ingerlaneq "the travelling" - is the subject of misigisimanartarmat

sivikinnerusutut - is the sort of object of misigisima- "feel"

Lit. "like a shorter one"
-tut : like
sivikinneru-: shorter
-su-: one/that (which is)