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This article discusses thephonology of theInuit languages. Unless otherwise noted, statements refer toInuktitut dialects ofCanada.

MostInuit varieties have fifteenconsonants and threevowel qualities (with phonemiclength distinctions for each). AlthoughInupiatun andQawiaraq haveretroflex consonants, retroflexes have otherwise disappeared in all the Canadian and Greenlandic dialects.

Almost alldialects of Inuktitut have three vowel qualities and make aphonemic distinction between short and long vowels. InInuujingajut (the standard alphabet ofNunavut) long vowels are written as a double vowel.

In westernAlaska,Qawiaraq and to some degree the Malimiutun variant ofInupiatun retains an additional vowel/ə/ which was present in proto-Inuit and is still present inYupik, but which has become/i/ or sometimes/a/ in all other dialects. Thus, the common Inuktitut word for water –imiq – isemeq(/əməq/) in Qawiaraq.^[1]

Furthermore, manydiphthongs in the Alaskan dialects have merged, suggesting the beginnings of a new more complex vowel scheme with more than three distinct vowels. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in theKobuk area, where the diphthongs/ua/ and/au/ are now both pronounced[ɔ]. Other diphthongs are also affected.^{[citation needed]}

In contrast to the larger number of vowel contrasts in Alaskan dialects, in the dialect of northwestGreenland (particularlyUpernavik), the phoneme/u/ has been replaced by/i/ in many contexts.

Otherwise, the three-vowel scheme described above holds for all of the Inuktitut dialects.

West Greenlandic vowels have a very wide range of allophones:

• /a/ varies between[e̞],[ɛ],[æ],[a̠],[ä] and[ɑ̟]. The last allophone appears before and especially between uvulars.^[2]
• /i/ varies between[i],[ɪ̟],[e̠],[e̽] and[ə]. The last allophone appears before and especially between uvulars.^[2]
• /u/ varies between[u̟],[u],[ʊ̠],[o] and[o̞]. The last allophone appears before and especially between uvulars.^[2]

The Nunavut dialects of Inuktitut have fifteen distinct consonants, though some have more.

		Labial	Alveolar		Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
			cen.	lat.
Nasal		m	n				ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t				k	q
	voiced					ɟ[a]	ɡ[b]
Continuant	voiceless		s	ɬ	ʂ[c]				h[d]
	voiced	v		l	ʐ[c]	j	(ɣ)[b]	ʁ[e]

Primary stress is said to fall on the last syllable of each word.^[3]

In Inuktitut,intonation is important in distinguishing some words – particularlyinterrogatives – but it is not generally marked in writing. There are someminimal pairs in Inuktitut where only pitch distinguishes between two different words, but they are rare enough that context usually disambiguates them in writing. One common case, however, issuva. A high pitch on the first syllable followed by a falling pitch on the second syllable means "What did you say?" A middle pitch on the first syllable followed by a rising pitch on the second means "What did he do?"

In general, Inuktitut uses intonation to mark questions in much the way English does. When an interrogative pronoun is used, pitch falls at the end of a question. When there is no interrogative pronoun, pitch rises on the last syllable.

Inuktitut speakers tend to lengthen vowels with a rising intonation. So, a rising tone is sometimes indicated indirectly by writing a double vowel:

An Inuktitutsyllable contains no more than one segment in the onset or coda. Thus,consonant clusters like/st/ or/pl/ that would arise from morphemes being joined together showassimilation or deletion. Word-finally, only voiceless stops (/ptkq/) occur unless consonantsandhi has occurred. Although two-consonant sequences occur when morphemes are joined together word-medially, three-segment clusters are consistently simplified.

Word-medially, two-segment sequences may occur, but these show restrictions in their distribution, based onvoicing andnasality. The consonants that occur in these sequences belong to three groups:

Consonants in word-medial sequences always belong to the same group so that, e.g./tp/,/vl/, and/mŋ/ occur, whereas*/nt/,*/qɡ/, and*/lŋ/ are not found. Where the morphology of Inuktitut places consonants from different groups together, they are either replaced by ageminated consonant – in effect, totalassimilation – or as a single consonant that takes its manner of articulation from one segment, and itsplace of articulation from the other. The process of eliminating three-segment clusters is similar with one of them disappearing. As a general rule, assimilation in Inuktitut is regressive – the first consonant takes its manner of articulation from the second consonant. But this varies amongst different dialects; the West Greenland dialect in particular tends to use progressive assimilation – the second consonant takes the manner of articulation from the first.

This limitation on consonant clusters is not quite universal across Inuit areas. One of the distinguishing features of western Alaskan dialects like Qawiaraq and Malimiutun is that nasal consonants can appear after consonants with other manners of articulation (this was a feature ofProto-Inuit as well as modernYupik languages). Some examples include the Malimiut wordqipmiq ('dog';qimmiq in Inupiatun) and the Qawiaraq wordiqniq ('fire';inniq in other Inuktitut dialects).

Otherwise, different dialects havemore phonotactic restrictions. In all forms of Inuktitut,/qk/ is impossible. In Inupiatun, Siglitun, and Inuinnaqtun (the far western dialects), all other consonant pairs are possible. Moving further east, the general rule is that more and more double consonants become geminated consonants. Determining which double consonants are assimilated depends on theplace of articulation of the first consonant in the pair:

In theAivilik dialect,North andSouth Baffin, and all dialects spoken further south and east, all double consonants starting with analveolar consonant are geminated:

In the North and South Baffin dialects, as well as the dialects to the south and east ofBaffin Island, double consonants starting with alabial consonant are also geminated. E.g. North Baffintakagakku ('because I see her') vs. Aivilingmiututtakugapku

In South Baffin, Nunavik, Greenland and Labrador, double consonants starting with avelar consonant are also geminated:

In addition, some dialects of Inuktitut pronounce[bl] ([vl] in Inupiatun) in place of the geminated lateral approximant/ll/. The phonological status of this distinction is uncertain – some dialects have both[bl] and[ll]. This feature is generally characteristic of western and central dialects as opposed to eastern ones.

Note 1qitilliK,kulluK,kulloq: In theNunatsiavummiutut alphabet, a capitalK indicates the same uvular stop asq in the Inupiatun,Inuinnaqtun,Kalaallisut and Nunavut alphabets. Furthermore,o in the Kalaallisut alphabet represents the same phoneme asu in the alphabets used for other varieties of Inuktitut. Contrasts between alphabets are described below.^[specify]

Double consonants where the second consonant is/s/ undergo more complex changes across dialects. In some cases assimilation is progressive (from the first consonant to the second), in others regressive, and in still others double consonants are neutralised into a single form.

Many phonemes in theQawiaraq dialect have undergone a process ofconsonant weakening, although to what degree varies somewhat between villages. This process is motivated in part byprosody and parallels the consonant weakening processes at work inYupik. As a result, manystops have becomefricatives and many fricatives have becomeglides or completely disappeared. For example, the wordmeat –niqi in most dialects – is rendered asnigi in Qawiaraq – the stop/q/ has become the fricative/ɣ/.

Consonant weakening is most noticeable in the area adjacent to theBering Strait in the westernmost part ofAlaska.

The historical fourth vowel of Inuktitut – theschwa/ə/ – affected the pronunciation ofalveolar consonants following it. Where an/i/ was present in proto-Inuktitut, the following consonant ispalatalized in modern Inupiatun (except where it has been assibilated –seeassibilation below). Thus, for example,/t/ becomes/tʃ/, spelledch alone andtch when geminated, after somei but not others. For example, the second person singular pronounilvit –you – in more easterly dialects of Inuktitut becomesilvich in Inupiatun. In contrast,iqit (fist,iqitii in Canadian Inuktitut), which was pronounced[əqət] in proto-Inuktitut, retains its stop/t/.

Similar processes affect other alveolar consonants:

In the Malimiut variant of Inupiatun, this process is extended to somevelar consonants, like/k/ and/ɡ/.

In a number of dialects,/t/ preceded by an/i/ derived from an */i/ in Proto-Inuktitut rather than an */ə/ may become an/s/ (or an/h/ indialects that use"h" in place of"s") when followed by another vowel:

This feature varies from dialect to dialect and does not follow a consistent east/west pattern, asassibilation is present in some words in both Alaskan Inupiatun and GreenlandicKalaallisut. The exact conditions in whichProto-Inuktitut consonants have been assibilated vary from dialect to dialect, often determined by the following vowel and other factors.

Many of the western and central dialects of Nunavut – includingInuinnaqtun,Kivallirmiutut andNatsilingmiutut – realize the phoneme/s/ as[h]. Inuinnaqtun also pronounces/ɬ/ as[h]. This leads to an additional constraint on double consonants in Inuinnaqtun: a stop followed by the fricative[h] becomes a fricative at the same point of articulation. This feature does not extend west of Inuinnaqtun and is not present in Siglitun or Inupiatun.

Natsilingmiutut retains as a phoneme the stop, and often retroflex, palatal consonant/ɟ/. This consonant has merged with/j/ in all other Nunavut and eastern dialects of Inuktitut. In Inupiatun, the/ɟ/ of Natsilingmiutut and the/j/ in some central Inuktitut words has become[ʐ] (written⟨r⟩).

In addition to the voiced retroflex fricative/ʐ/ (represented orthographically as⟨r⟩), Inupiatun also has a voiceless retroflex fricative/ʂ/ represented as⟨sr⟩. This additional manner of articulation is largely distinctive to Inupiatun – it is absent from the more easterly dialects, except for the/ɟ/ of Natsilingmiutut.

The Qawiaraq dialect of Inupiatun, furthermore, has a third retroflex consonant in addition to the two present in other varieties of Inupiatun: the retroflex approximant/ɻ/.

Nunavik Inuktitut, in contrast to other dialects, does not allow two double consonants to appear with only one syllable between them. Wherever this occurs, the first consonant in the second consonant pair is deleted.

In a number of dialects, uvular consonants and ordinary stops are replaced withglottal stops in some contexts. Which uvular consonants and which contexts varies to some degree across dialects. Most frequently, a/q/ or in some cases a/ʁ/ before another consonant is transformed into a glottal stop. Thus, the Inuktitut name of the hamlet ofBaker Lake is pronouncedQamaniqtuaq orQamanittuaq by most Inuktitut speakers, but is renderedQamani'tuaq in Baker Lake itself. This phenomenon occurs in a number of dialects, but is particularly noticeable in Nunavimmiutut and in central Nunavut dialects likeKivallirmiutut.

In Natsilingmiutut, the velar nasal consonant/ŋ/ sometimes becomes a glottal stop when followed by another consonant, but not in all cases.

• Greenlandic phonology
• Inuit grammar

• Inuktitut Linguistics for TechnocratsArchived 2017-10-11 at theWayback Machine, Mick Mallon.
• Nunavut Living Dictionary
• Interactive IñupiaQ Dictionary
• Oqaasileriffik Language database

• Inuit languages
• Native American phonologies

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