| Inuktun | |
|---|---|
| Polar Inuit | |
| avanersuarmiutut[1] | |
| Native to | Greenland Kingdom of Denmark |
| Region | Avanersuaq |
| Ethnicity | Inughuit |
Native speakers | (800–1,000 cited 1995)[2] |
Eskaleut
| |
Early forms | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Greenland |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | pola1254 Polar Eskimo |
 Inuit dialects. Inuktun is the brown area ("Avanersuaq") in the northwest of Greenland. | |
 North Greenlandic is classified as Definitely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Inuktun (English:Polar Inuit,Greenlandic:avanersuarmiutut,Danish:nordgrønlandsk, polarinuitisk, thulesproget) is the language of approximately 1,000 IndigenousInughuit (PolarInuit), inhabiting the world's northernmost settlements inQaanaaq and the surrounding villages in northwesternGreenland.[3]
Apart from the town of Qaanaaq, Inuktun is also spoken in the villages of (Inuktun names in brackets)Moriusaq (Muriuhaq),Siorapaluk (Hiurapaluk),Qeqertat (Qikiqtat),Qeqertarsuaq (Qikiqtarhuaq), andSavissivik (Havighivik).
The language is anEskimo–Aleut language anddialectologically it is in between theGreenlandic language (Kalaallisut) and the CanadianInuktitut,Inuvialuktun orInuinnaqtun. The language differs from Kalaallisut by some phonological, grammatical and lexical differences.
The Polar Inuit were the last to cross from Canada into Greenland and they may have arrived as late as in the 18th century.[4] The language was first described by the explorersKnud Rasmussen andPeter Freuchen who travelled through northern Greenland in the early 20th century and established a trading post in 1910 at Dundas (Uummannaq) nearPituffik.
Inuktun does not have its ownorthography and is not taught in schools. However, most of the inhabitants of Qaanaaq and the surrounding villages use Inuktun in their everyday communication.
All speakers of Inuktun also speakStandard Greenlandic and many also speak Danish and a few also English.
There is no official way to transcribe Inuktun. This article uses the orthography ofMichael Fortescue, which deliberately reflects the close connection between Inuktun andInuktitut.
The vowels are the same as in other Inuit dialects:/i/,/u/ and/a/.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iiː | uuː | |
| Mid | (e~əeː~əː)[a] | (ooː)[a] | |
| Open | aaː | (ɑɑː)[a] | |
There are two diphthongs:/ai/ and/au/, which have been assimilated in West Greenlandic to/aa/ (except for final/ai/).
The most notable phonological difference from West Greenlandic is thedebuccalization of West Greenlandic/s/ to/h/ (often pronounced[ç]) except for geminate[sː] (from earlier/ss/ or/vs/). Inuktun also allows more consonant clusters than Kalaallisut, namely ones with initial/k/,/ŋ/,/ɣ/,/q/ or/ʁ/. Older or conservative speakers also still have clusters with initial/p/,/m/ or/v/. Younger speakers have gone further in reducing old clusters, with also/k/,/ŋ/ and/ɣ/ being assimilated to the following consonant.
The digraphs⟨gh⟩ and⟨rh⟩ (from earlier/ɣs/ and/ʁs/, cognates with West Greenlandic⟨ss⟩ and⟨rs⟩) are pronounced like West Greenlandic velar and uvular fricatives -gg-/xː/ and -rr-/χː/ respectively.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | plain | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩,⟨-t⟩[a] | ŋ⟨ng⟩,⟨-k⟩[a] | (ɴ⟨-q⟩)[a] | ||
| geminated | mː⟨mm⟩ | nː⟨nn⟩ | ŋː⟨nng⟩ | ɴː⟨rng⟩ | |||
| Plosive | plain | p⟨p⟩ | t⟨t⟩ | k⟨k⟩ | q⟨q⟩ | ʔ[b] | |
| geminated | pː⟨pp⟩ | tː⟨tt⟩ | kː⟨kk⟩ | qː⟨qq⟩ | |||
| Affricate | plain | (t͡s⟨t⟩)[c] | |||||
| geminated | tːs⟨ts⟩ | ||||||
| Fricative | plain | v⟨v⟩[d] | s⟨s⟩ | (ç⟨h⟩)[e] | ɣ⟨g⟩ | ʁ⟨r⟩ | h⟨h⟩[e] |
| geminated | sː⟨ss⟩ | xː⟨gh⟩ | χː⟨rh⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | (l⟨l⟩)[f] | j⟨j⟩ | |||||
| Flap | ɾ⟨l⟩[f] | ||||||
| Pronunciation | |
|---|---|
| Inuktun | West Greenlandic |
| a[a],[ɑ][a] | |
| aa[aː],[ɑː][a] | |
| ai[ai] | aa[aː],[ɑː][a] ai[ai][b] |
| au[au] | aa[aː],[ɑː][a] |
| g[ɣ] | |
| gg[ʔɣ] | gg[xː~çː] |
| gh[xː] | ss[sː] |
| gl[ɣɾ] | ll[ɬː] |
| h[h],[ç] (see above) | s[s][c] |
| i[i],[e~ə][a] | i[i] e[e~ə][a] |
| ii[iː],[eː~əː][a] | ii[iː] ee[eː~əː][a] |
| j[j] | |
| k[k],[ŋ][b] | k[k] |
| kp[kp~xp] /[pː][d] | pp[pː] |
| kt[kt~xt] /[tː][d] | tt[tː] |
| l[ɾ] | l[l] |
| ll[ʔɾ] | ll[ɬː] |
| m[m] | |
| n[n] | |
| ng[ŋ] | |
| ngm[ŋm] /[mː][d] | mm[mː] |
| ngn[ŋn] /[nː][d] | nn[nː] |
| p[p] | |
| q[q],[ɴ][b] | q[q] |
| qp[qp~χp] | rp[pː] |
| qt[qt~χt],[qt͡s~χt͡s][e] | rt[tː],[tt͡s][f] |
| r[ʁ] | |
| rl[ʁɾ] | rl[ɬː] |
| rm[ʁm] | rm[mː] |
| rn[ʁn] | rn[ɴ] |
| rng[ɴː] | |
| rh[χː] | rs[sː] |
| rv[ʁv] (may be[ʁβ] for older speakers) | rf[fː] |
| s[s] | |
| ss[sː] | |
| t[t],[t͡s][e] | t[t],[t͡s][f] |
| ts[tt͡s] | |
| u[u],[o][a] | u[u] o[o][a] |
| uu[uː],[oː][a] | uu[uː] oo[oː][a] |
| v[v] (may be[β] for older speakers) | v[v] |
| vv[ʔv] (may be[ʔβ] for older speakers) | ff[fː] |
| Aleut |  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eskimoan |
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| See also | |||||
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