Bulgarian to Inuinnaqtun: translate the event before selecting a dictionary form
A dictionary entry can already express an action
A Bulgarian dictionary headword and an Inuinnaqtun dictionary entry need not represent the same grammatical amount of information. The Nunavut Arctic College dictionary includes forms glossed as complete predicates, not only bare English-style nouns or infinitives. For a Bulgarian sentence, determine whether the selected target entry already expresses an action before adding other material intended to reproduce the Bulgarian verb.
The dictionary contrasts aaktuq with aaktuqtuq in a skinning context, separating a completed-event gloss from an activity gloss. This is relevant because Bulgarian verbs distinguish aspect. The source action’s stage matters: an account of having skinned something is different from describing skinning as an activity. These entries illustrate a lexical contrast; they are not a productive recipe for deriving every Inuinnaqtun aspect form by adding or removing the same letters.
An object can be built into the meaning being selected
The dictionary gives agjaqtaa with reference to carrying or bringing a particular him, her or it, while agjaqtuq concerns carrying or bringing something. A Bulgarian transport message may distinguish an identified item from a less specified load. Before choosing between such entries, establish whether the source refers back to an object already named or merely reports an activity.
That decision is not identical to copying the Bulgarian definite article. Bulgarian attaches definiteness after the relevant nominal word, but the target dictionary contrast concerns the selected predicate and its object reference. Do not treat a Bulgarian definite ending as a universal signal for one Inuinnaqtun word ending. Interpret the event and the participants together, then choose a construction supported by the target language.
A health noun and a health predicate do different work
Another useful dictionary contrast is aanniaqtuq, describing being ill, and aanniarvik, naming a health facility. For a Bulgarian message, distinguish saying that a person is ill from identifying the place to which they are going. Similar-looking Inuinnaqtun forms are not interchangeable merely because their meanings concern the same topic.
Bulgarian can express a condition with a copular clause and a destination through a prepositional phrase. Selecting a target word associated with illness does not by itself preserve which of those statements was made. A correct lexical topic with the wrong grammatical function could turn a location enquiry into a statement about someone’s condition, or leave a destination unnamed.
Use the documented variety without pretending it is a full paradigm
The dictionary’s introduction explains its local collaborative basis, including work with elders and adaptation for the Inuinnaqtun taught at Nunavut Arctic College in Cambridge Bay. That makes its attested entries valuable evidence, but the dictionary does not license inventing complete target sentences through arbitrary combinations of entries.
For this Bulgarian direction, the most useful distinction is between what the source grammar marks and what the chosen Inuinnaqtun form already contains. Bulgarian aspect, an identified object and a predicative condition can each influence the target lexical construction. Preserve those meanings while treating the cited forms as documented examples, rather than as fragments that can be mechanically assembled according to Bulgarian word order.
Language references