Inuktitut

Varieties

It is more in the nature of a dialect continuum than a single language; this continuum can be divided into roughly sixteen varieties, in four groups:

• Iñupiaq (northern Alaska)
• Inuktun (Canadian Western Arctic)
• Inuktitut proper (Canadian Eastern Arctic)
• Kalaallisut or Greenlandic (Greenland).

All Inuktitut varieties taken together have a speaking population of approximately 80,000.

Linguistics

It is related to the Aleut language, and together they form the Eskimo-Aleut family; while this has no proven wider affinities, some postulation has taken place as to the relation of Inuktitut to the Indo-European languages and to the Nostratic superphylum.

Inuktitut, like other Eskimo-Aleut languages, represents a particular type of agglutinative language called a polysynthetic language: it "synthesizes" a root and various grammatical affixes to create long words with sentence-like meanings.

See also: Yupik, Inupik.

Legal status

Inuktitut is an official language in the following areas:

• Greenland (Greenlandic, with Danish)
• Nunavut, Canada (Inuktitut and Innuinaqtun, with English and French)
• Northwest Territories, Canada (Inuktitut, Innuinaqtun, and Inuvialuktun, with Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Slavey, and Tli Cho).

Also, according to the Charter of the French Language in Quebec, Canada, Inuktitut is the official language of instruction for Inuit school districts in Nunavik (northern Quebec).

Referenced By