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Inuktitut
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{{language
|name=Inuktitut
|nativename=�ᓄᒃᑎ�ᑦ, Inuktitut, Inuttitut, Inuktitun, Inuinnaqtun, Inuttut, and other local names
|familycolor=Eskimo-Aleut
|states=
Canada (
Nunavut,
Nunavik,
Northwest Territories,
Nunatsiavut)
|speakers=approximately 30,000
|fam2=
Inuit language Inuit
|nation=
Nunavut,
Nunavik,
Northwest Territories,
Nunatsiavut (
Canada)
|agency=
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and various other local instutions.
|iso1=iu
|iso2=iku
|lc1=iku|ld1=Inuktitut (generic)|ll1=none
|lc2=ike|ld2=Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
|lc3=ikt|ld3=Western Canadian Inuktitut}}
'''Inuktitut''' (
Inuktitut syllabics: '''�ᓄᒃᑎ�ᑦ''', literally ''"like the Inuit"'') is the name of the varieties of
Inuit language spoken in
Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the
tree-line, including parts of the provinces of
Newfoundland and Labrador,
Quebec and to some extent in northeastern
Manitoba as well as the territories of
Nunavut, the
Northwest Territories and traditionally on the
Arctic Ocean coast of
Yukon.
It is recognised as an official language in
Nunavut and the
Northwest Territories. It also has legal recognition in
Nunavik - a part of
Quebec - thanks in part to the
James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, and is recognised in the
Charter of the French Language as the official language of instruction for Inuit school districts there. It also has some recognition in
Nunatsiavut - the Inuit area in
Labrador - following the ratification of its agreement with the
Canada Canadian federal government and the province of
Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian census estimates that there are roughly 30,000 Inuktitut speakers in Canada, including roughly 200 who live regularly outside of traditionally Inuit lands.
For more information on the relationship between Inuktitut and the Inuit languages spoken in
Greenland and
Alaska, see ''
Inuit language''.
Dialects and variants
Image:Inuktitut dialect map.png thumb|right|Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic.
Northwest Territories and Yukon
Inuit in Canada's
Northwest Territories call themselves
Inuvialuit and live primarily in the
Inuvialuit Settlement Region, consisting of the northern part of the
Mackenzie river delta, the arctic coast of the
Northwest Territories and
Yukon,
Banks Island, a part of
Victoria Island and some more remote and irregularly inhabited
Arctic Ocean islands. The Inuit language variants of the NWT are often treated together as '''
Inuvialuktun''', but this categorisation is misleading. The Inuvialuit population encompasses three distinct dialects:
*
Kangiryuarmiutun: spoken mainly in the community of
Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories Ulukhaktok. This dialect is essentially identical to the
Inuinnaqtun spoken in western
Nunavut.
*
Siglitun: spoken mainly in the communities of
Paulatuk, Northwest Territories Paulatuk,
Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories Sachs Harbour and
Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories Tuktoyaktuk. Siglitun was once the principal dialect of the
Mackenzie river delta and nearby parts of the coast and
Arctic ocean islands, but the number of speakers fell dramatically following outbreaks of new diseases in the
19th century and for many years Siglitun was believed to be completely extinct. It was only in the
1980s that outsiders realised that it was still spoken. (Dorais, [http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000861/086162e.pdf Arctic languages: an awakening], pg. 194)
*
Uummarmiutun: spoken mainly in the communities of
Inuvik, Northwest Territories Inuvik and
Aklavik, Northwest Territories Aklavik. This dialect is essentially the same as Alaskan Inupiatun, and is present in Canada because of migration from Alaska in the
1910s, reoccupying traditionally Siglit lands abandonned during the devastating disease outbreaks of the previous century. [http://www.canadianarchaeology.com/canadianarchaeology/cmcc/pinuva.htm]
The Inuvialuktun dialects are seriously endangered, as English has in recent years become the common language of the community. Surveys of Inuktitut usage in the NWT vary, but all agree that usage is not vigorous. According to the ''Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre'', only some 10% of the roughly 4,000 Inuvialuit speak any form of Inuktitut, and only some 4% use it at home. [http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/em-cr/eval/2003/2003_01/11_e.cfm]
Statistics Canada's 2001 Census report is only slightly better, reporting 765 self-identified Inuktitut speakers out of a self-reported Inuvialuit population of 3,905. Considering the large number of non-Inuit living in Inuvialuit areas and the lack of a single common dialect among the already reduced number of speakers, the future of the Inuit language in the NWT appears bleak.
Nunavut
Nunavut encompasses the geographically largest part of the Inuit world (not counting the uninhabitable
Greenland ice shield), and includes large mainland areas and numerous islands divided by rivers, straits,
Hudson Bay, and areas of ocean that freeze only for a part of the year. Consequently, it is unsurprising that it has a great deal of internal dialect diversity.
Nunavut's basic law lists four official languages:
English language English,
French language French,
Inuktitut and
Inuinnaqtun, but to what degree Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun can be thought of as separate languages is ambiguous in state policy. The word ''Inuktitut'' is often used to describe both.
The demographic situation of Inuktitut is quite strong in Nunavut. Nunavut is the home of some 24,000 Inuit, most of whom - over 80% according to the 2001 census - speak Inuktitut, including some 3,500 people reported as monolinguals. 2001 census data shows that the use of Inuktitut, while lower among the young than the elderly, has stopped declining in Canada as a whole and may even be increasing in Nunavut.
*
Inuinnaqtun is an Inuit language variant spoken in the western part of the
Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, and at
Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories Ulukhaktok in the
Northwest Territories. Although it has a number of features distinguishing it as a specific variant of Inuktitut, the most immediately noticeable is the lack of a local tradition of
Inuktitut syllabics use. The government of Nunavut considers Inuinnaqtun an official language of the territory, but many consider it simply a Roman alphabet writing scheme for standard Inuktitut. However, the Roman alphabet writing scheme used in Inuinnaqtun uses letters in a manner distinctive to western Nunavut dialects.
*
Natsilingmiutut designates variants spoken in the part of eastern
Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut Kitikmeot called
Natsilik. In the Natsilik dialect, it is called '''Nattilingmiutut'''. Some people view the '''Utkuhiksalingmiutut''' dialect, spoken today primarily in
Gjoa Haven, Nunavut Gjoa Haven but traditionally spoken in the
Franklin Lake, Nunavut Franklin Lake and
Chantrey Inlet area, as a separate dialect.
*
Kivallirmiutut dialect is spoken in the
Kivalliq Region, Nunavut Kivalliq Region down to the
Manitoba border.
*
Aivilimmiutut is spoken in the area traditionally known as
Aivilik:
Southampton Island and
Repulse Bay in
Kivalliq Region, Nunavut Kivalliq, and part of the
Melville Peninsula in the
Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut Qikiqtaaluk Region. This area was settled by Inuit after the disappearance of the
Sadlermiut in the late
19th century 19th and early
20th century. Some linguists consider it too close to '''North Baffin''' to merit separate treatment. (Dorais, [http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000861/086162e.pdf Arctic languages: an awakening], pg. 194)
*
North Baffin ('''Qikiqtaaluk uannangani''') is spoken on the northern part of
Baffin Island, at
Iglulik and the adjacent part of the
Melville Peninsula, and in Inuit communities in the far north of Nunavut, like
Resolute, Nunavut Resolute and
Grise Fiord. This dialect is the one heard in the film
Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner.
*
South Baffin ('''Qikiqtaaluk nigiani''') is the dialect of the southern part of Baffin Island, including the territorial capital
Iqaluit. This has in recent years made it a much more widely heard dialect, since a great deal of Inuktitut media originates in
Iqaluit. Some linguists also distinguish an '''East Baffin''' dialect from either North or South Baffin.
Nunavik
Quebec is home to roughly 12,000 Inuit, nearly all of whom live in
Nunavik. According to the 2001 census, 90% of Quebec Inuit speak Inuktitut.
The Nunavik dialect ('''Nunavimmiutitut''') is relatively close to the South Baffin dialect, but not identical. Because of the political and physical boundary between Nunavik and Nunavut, Nunavik has separate government and educational institutions from those in the rest of the Inuktitut-speaking world, resulting in a growing standardisation of the local dialect as something separate from other forms of Inuktitut. In the Nunavik dialect, Inuktitut is called '''Inuttitut'''. This dialect is also sometimes called '''Tarramiutut''' or '''Taqramiutut'''.
Nunatsiavut
The
Nunatsiavut dialect ('''
Nunatsiavummiutut''', or often in government documents '''Labradorimiutut''') was once spoken across northern
Labrador. It has a distinct writing system, created by German missionaries from the
Moravians (religion) Moravian Church in Greenland in the
1760s. This separate writing tradition, and the remoteness of Nunatsiavut from other Inuit communities, has made it into a distinct dialect with a separate literary tradition. The Nunatsiavummiut call their language '''Inuttut'''.
Although Nunatsiavut claims over 4,000 inhabitants of Inuit descent, only 550 reported Inuktitut to be their mother tongue in the 2001 census, mostly in the town of
Nain, Newfoundland and Labrador Nain. Inuktitut is seriously endangered in Labrador.
Nunatsiavut also had a separate dialect reputedly much closer to western Inuktitut dialects, spoken in the area around
Rigolet, Newfoundland and Labrador Rigolet. According to news reports, in
1999 it had only three very elderly speakers. [http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut990528/nvt90507_16.html]
Phonology and Phonetics
''See main article
Inuit language phonology and phonetics''
Eastern Canadian dialects of Inuktitut have fifteen
consonants and three
vowels (which can be long or short). Consonants are arranged with five
place of articulation places of articulation:
bilabial,
alveolar,
palatal,
velar and
uvular; and three
manner of articulation manners of articulation: voiceless
Stop consonant stops, voiced
continuants and
nasals, as well as two additional sounds — voiceless
Fricative consonant fricatives. Natsalingmiutut has an additional consonant {{IPA|/ÉŸ/}}, a vestige of the
retroflex consonants that were present in proto-Inuit.
Inuinnaqtun has one fewer consonant, as {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/ɬ/}} have merged into {{IPA|/h/}}. All dialects of Inuktitut have only three basic vowels and make a phonological distinction between short and long forms of all vowels. In ''Inuujingajut'' - Nunavut standard Roman orthography - long vowels are written as a double vowel.
'''Inuktitut vowels'''
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
! !! IPA !! Inuujingajut !! ''Notes''
|-
! Short open front unrounded
| {{IPA|/open front unrounded vowel a/}} ||align="center"| '''a''' ||
|-
! Long open front unrounded
| {{IPA|/open front unrounded vowel aË?/}} ||align="center"| '''aa''' ||
|-
! Short closed front unrounded
| {{IPA|/close front unrounded vowel i/}} ||align="center"| '''i''' ||align="left"| Short '''i''' is sometimes realised as {{IPA|Close-mid front unrounded vowel [e]}} or {{IPA|Open-mid front unrounded vowel [É›]}}
|-
! Long closed front unrounded
| {{IPA|/close front unrounded vowel iË?/}} ||align="center"| '''ii''' ||
|-
! Short closed back rounded
| {{IPA|/close back rounded vowel u/}} ||align="center"| '''u''' ||align="left"| Short '''u''' is sometimes realised as {{IPA|Close-mid back rounded vowel [o]}} or {{IPA|Open-mid back rounded vowel [É”]}}
|-
! Long closed back rounded
| {{IPA|/close back rounded vowel uË?/}} ||align="center"| '''uu''' ||
|}
'''Inuktitut consonants in ''Inuujingajut'' and IPA notation'''
{| class="wikitable" border="1" width="80%"
! !! Labial !! Alveolar !! Palatal !! Velar !! Uvular !!width="40%"| ''Notes''
|-
!align="right"| Voiceless stop
|align="center"| '''p''' /{{IPA|Voiceless bilabial plosive p}}/ ||align="center"| '''t''' /{{IPA|Voiceless alveolar plosive t}}/ ||/| ||align="center"| '''k''' /{{IPA|Voiceless velar plosive k}}/ ||align="center"| '''q''' /{{IPA|Voiceless uvular plosive q}}/ ||align="left"|
*All plosives are aspiration (phonetics) unaspirated
*{{IPA|/q/}} is sometimes spelled '''r'''
|-
!align="right"| Voiceless fricative
| ||align="center"| '''s''' /{{IPA|voiceless alveolar fricative s}}/
'''ł''' /{{IPA|voiceless alveolar lateral fricative ɬ}}/
('''h''' /{{IPA|Voiceless glottal fricative h}}/) || || || ||/|
*'''h''' replaces '''s''' in Kivallirmiutut and Natsilingmiutut and replaces both '''s''' and '''É«''' in Inuinnaqtun
*'''É«''' is often written as '''&''', or simply as '''l'''
|-
!align="right"| Voiced
|align="center"| '''v''' /{{IPA|Voiced labiodental fricative v}}/ ||align="center"| '''l''' /{{IPA|Alveolar lateral approximant l}}/ ||align="center"| '''j''' /{{IPA|Palatal approximant j}}/
('''j''' /{{IPA|Voiced palatal plosive ɟ}}/) ||align="center"| '''g''' /{{IPA|Voiced velar plosive g}}/ ||align="center"| '''r''' /{{IPA|Voiced uvular plosive ɢ}}/ ||align="left"|
*{{IPA|/ÉŸ/}}, being absent from most dialects, is not written with a separate letter
*{{IPA|/g/}} is replaced by {{IPA|Voiced velar fricative [É£]}} in Siglitun, and may be realised as {{IPA|Voiced velar fricative [É£]}} between vowels or vowels and approximants in other dialects
*{{IPA|/É¢/}} assimilation (linguistics) assimilated to {{IPA|uvular nasal [É´]}} before nasals
|-
!align="right"| Nasal
|align="center"| '''m''' /{{IPA|Bilabial nasal m}}/ ||align="center"| '''n''' /{{IPA|Alveolar nasal n}}/ || ||align="center"| '''ng''' /{{IPA|Velar nasal Å‹}}/ || ||
*A Gemination geminated '''ng''' is written '''nng'''
|}
Morphology and syntax
''See
Inuit language morphology and syntax for a detailed description specific to Nunavut Inuktitut.''
Inuktitut, like other
Eskimo-Aleut languages, has a very rich morphological system, in which a succession of different
morphemes are added to root words to indicate things that, in languages like English, would require serveral words to express. (See also:
Agglutinative language and
Polysynthetic language) All words begin with a root morpheme to which other morphemes are suffixed. Inuktitut has hundreds of distinct suffixes, in some dialects as many as 700. Fortunately for the learners, the language has a highly regular morphology. Although the rules are sometimes very complicated, they do not have exceptions in the sense that English and other
Indo-European languages do.
Writing
Inuktitut is written in several different ways, depending on the dialect and region, but also on historical and political factors.
The first people to write Inuktitut were
Moravian missionaires in
Labrador, who developed a Roman alphabet writing scheme that they applied to Greenlandic and Labrador language which included the letter
Kra (letter) ''kra''. The Greenlandic system has been substantially reformed in recent years, making Labrador writing unique to
Nunatsiavummiutut at this time. Most Inuktitut in Nunavut and Nunavik is written using an scheme called
Inuktitut syllabics, based on
Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. The western part of Nunavut and the
Northwest Territories use a Roman alphabet scheme usually identified as
Inuinnaqtun, reflecting the predispositions of the missionaries who reached this area in the late
19th century and early
20th century 20th.
The Canadian syllabary
''See
Inuktitut syllabics for more information.''
Image:Inuktitut.png framed|right|The syllabary used to write Inuktitut (titirausiq nutaaq). The extra characters with the dots represent long vowels; in the Latin transcription, the vowel would be doubled.The Inuktitut syllabary used in Canada is based on the
Cree syllabary devised by the missionary
James Evans. The present form of the syllabary for Canadian Inuktitut was adopted by the
Inuit Cultural Institute in Canada in the
1970s. The Inuit in Alaska, the
Inuvialuit, Inuinnaqtun speakers, and Inuit in
Greenland and
Labrador use the Roman alphabet, although it has been adapted for their use in different ways.
Though conventionally called a
syllabary, the writing system has been classified by some observers as an
abugida, since syllables starting with the same consonant have related
glyphs rather than unrelated ones.
All of the characters needed for the Inuktitut syllabary are available in the
Unicode character repertoire. (See
Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics character table.) The territorial government of
Nunavut,
Canada has developed a
truetype font called ''Pigiarniq'' for computer displays. It was designed by
Vancouver-based Tiro Typeworks.
References
-
Inuktitut Linguistics for Technocrats, Mick Mallon.
*'''Introductory Inuktitut''' and '''Introductory Inuktitut Reference Grammar''', Mick Mallon, 1991. ISBN 0771702302 and ISBN 0771702353
*'''Inuktitut: A multi-dialectal outline dictionary (with an Aivilingmiutaq base)''', Alex Spalding, 1998. ISBN 1896204295
*'''Inuktitut: a Grammar of North Baffin Dialects''', Alex Spalding, 1992. ISBN 0920063438
*'''Arctic Languages: An Awakening''', ed: Dirmid R. F. Collis. ISBN 92-3-102661-5 [http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000861/086162e.pdf Available in PDF via the UNESCO website].
''Although as many of the examples as possible are novel or extracted from Inuktitut texts, some of the examples in this article are drawn from '''Introductory Inuktitut''' and '''Inuktitut Linguistics for Technocrats'''.''
External links
{{InterWiki|code=iu}}
Dictionaries and lexica
-
Inuktitut - English Dictionary
-
Nunavut Living Dictionary
-
Inuktitut Morphology List (
portable document format PDF)
Webpages
-
A Brief History of Inuktitut Writing Culture
-
Inuktitut Syllabarium
-
Our Language, Our Selves
-
Government of Nunavut font download
-
Inuktitut-friendly website hosting and development
Category:Inuit language Inuktitut
Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Arctic
Category:Languages of Canada
Category:Eskimo-Aleut languages
an:Idioma inuktitut
br:Inuktitut
bg:Инуктитут
da:Inuktitut
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et:Inuktituti keel
es:Idioma inuktitut
eo:Inuita lingvo
fr:Inuktitut
ko:�누�트어
iu:�ᓄᒃᑎ�ᑦ
nl:Inuktitut
ja:イヌクティトゥット語
nn:Inuktitut
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