Inuktitut

name of several Inuit languages spoken in Canada

Inuktitut is a language of the Arctic, spoken by Inuits in Canada and in Greenland. Inuktitut is a very complex language. It is an official language in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Inuktitut
Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ
Distribution of Inuit languages across the Arctic. East Inuktitut dialects are those east of Hudson Bay, here coloured dark blue (on the south of Baffin Island), red and pink, and the brown in NW Greenland.
Native to Canada
 United States
 Greenland
RegionNorthwest Territories, Nunatsiavut (Newfoundland and Labrador), Nunavik (Quebec), Nunavut, Alaska
Native speakers
39,475 (2016 census)[1]
36,000 together with Inuvialuktun (2006)
Dialects
Inuktitut syllabics, Inuktitut Braille, Latin
Official status
Official language in
Nunavut
Northwest Territories
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byInuit Tapiriit Kanatami and various other local institutions.
Language codes
ISO 639-1iu Inuktitut
ISO 639-2iku Inuktitut
ISO 639-3iku – inclusive code Inuktitut
Individual codes:
ike – Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
ikt – Inuinnaqtun
Glottologeast2534  Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
ELPInuktitut
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic.

The Inuit write Inuktitut in two ways. One way to write Inuktitut is by using the Roman alphabet. The other way to write Inuktitut is by using an abugida, which is a kind of alphabet which has letters based on syllables.

The Inuktitut syllabary uses a small part of the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, a set of letters made up for writing down many of the languages of the First Nations people in Canada.

Some words in English come from Inuktitut or another Inuit language. Among them are the words anorak, igloo, and kayak.

References

change
  1. "Census in Brief: The Aboriginal languages of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit". Statistics Canada. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 2017-11-12.