Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Greenland and Canada account for the bulk of Inuit speakers, although about 7,500 Alaskans speak some variety of an Inuit language out of a total population of over 13,000 Inuit. [3] An estimated 7,000 Greenlandic Inuit live in Denmark , the largest group outside of North America.
The Eskimoan languages are divided into two branches: the Yupik languages, spoken in western and southwestern Alaska and in Chukotka, and the Inuit languages, spoken in northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Inuit languages, which cover a huge range of territory, are divided into several varieties.
Inuit language became distinct and, over a period of several centuries, its speakers migrated across northern Alaska, through Canada, and into Greenland. The distinct culture of the Thule people (drawing strongly from the Birnirk culture ) developed in northwestern Alaska.
The term Inuktitut is also the name of a macrolanguage and, in that context, also includes Inuvialuktun, and thus nearly all Inuit dialects of Canada. [7] However, Statistics Canada lists all Inuit languages in the Canadian census as Inuktut. [6]
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) says "Inuktut is the language of Inuit, spoken across Inuit Nunaat, which includes Greenland, Alaska and Inuit Nunangat in Northern Canada". [1] In Canada, according to ITK, it encompasses Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, and Inuttut. [1]
Inuinnaqtun (Inuinnaqtun: ᐃᓄᐃᓐᓇᖅᑐᓐ, [inuinːɑqtun]; natively meaning 'like the real human beings/peoples') is an Inuit language. It is spoken in the central Canadian Arctic . It is related very closely to Inuktitut , and some scholars, such as Richard Condon , believe that Inuinnaqtun is more appropriately classified as a ...
Inuktitut, the most widely spoken Inuit language in Canada, however, is an official, and one of two main languages, alongside English, of Nunavut and has its speakers throughout Nunavut, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (Labrador), and the Northwest Territories, where it is also an official language.
Kivalliq uses Inuktitut Syllabics as a writing system. [3] Syllabics is the most common Inuktitut writing system across Nunavut and Nunavik. [3] There is no uniform writing system in place for all dialects of Inuktitut, which can be explained by the sporadic introduction of missionaries to Nunavut in the 1800s. [3]