ᐊᐃ
Ai
The Inuktitut word for "hi" is ᐊᐃ (Ai).
ᐊᐃ is used as a friendly and informal greeting.
Meaning: friendly, informal greeting (intj)
How do you pronounce it?
The romanization is Ai.
Did you know?
- Because Inuktitut is an agglutinative language, many 'hi' alternatives are actually long, complex words built by adding suffixes to a root. A simple 'hi' like ᐊᐃ is a rare exception to this tendency for word-building.
- While ᐊᐃ is a short greeting, Inuit culture traditionally places a high value on silence. It is common and polite to have long periods of silence between greetings or during a conversation.
- The syllabic writing system used for ᐊᐃ is based on geometric shapes, where different orientations of a symbol represent different vowel sounds.
Examples in context
- ᐊᐃ.ai.Hi.
- ᐊᐃ, ᖃᓄᐃᑉᐱᑦ?ai, qanuipit?Hi, how are you?
Example conversation
Two friends meet on a walking path.
- ᐅᓇ Unaᐊᐃ, ᓇᓇᑯᒃ!Ai, Nanakuk!Hi, Nanakuk!
- ᓇᓇᑯᒃ Nanakukᐊᐃ, ᐅᓇ!Ai, Una!Hi, Una!
- ᐅᓇ Unaᖃᓄᐃᑉᐱᑦ ᐅᓪᓗᒥ?Qanuippit ullumi?How are you today?
- ᓇᓇᑯᒃ Nanakukᓴᓇᒋᔭᒃᑯᑦ, ᖁྀ་ᓇᐃᑦᑐᖅ.Sanagijakkut, quinaittuq.Good, it's great.
