Inuvialuktun (part of ''Western Canadian Inuit'' / ''

Inuktitut Inuktitut ( ; , Inuktitut syllabics, syllabics ), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of ...

'' / ''

Inuktut Inuktut is the collective name for the Inuit languages. It is used by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Inuit Circumpolar Council, and the Government of Nunavut throughout Inuit Nunaat and Inuit Nunangat. Usage Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) says ...

'' / ''

Inuktun Inuktun (, , ) is the language of approximately 1,000 Indigenous Inughuit (Polar Inuit), inhabiting the world's northernmost settlements in Qaanaaq and the surrounding villages in northwestern Greenland. Geographic distribution Apart from the t ...

'') comprises several

Inuit language The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and the adjacent subarctic regions as far south as Labrador. The Inuit languages are one of the two branche ...

varieties spoken in the northern

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

by Canadian

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

who call themselves ''

Inuvialuit The Inuvialuit (sing. Inuvialuk; ''the real people'') or Western Canadian Inuit are Inuit who live in the western Canadian Arctic region. They, like all other Inuit, are descendants of the Thule who migrated eastward from Alaska. Their homelan ...

''.Inuvialuktun Dialects
/ref> Some dialects and sub-dialects are also spoken in

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

.Iñuvialuktun/Inuvialuktun/Inuinnaqtun / ᐃᓄᐃᓐᓇᖅᑐᓐ
/ref> and

Distribution and varieties

Inuvialuktun is spoken by the Inuit of the

Mackenzie River The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...

delta,

Banks Island Banks Island is one of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago. Situated in the Inuvik Region, and part of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, of the Northwest Territories, it is separated from Victoria Island to its east by the Prince of ...

, part of

Victoria Island Victoria Island () is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the eighth-largest island in the world, and at in area, it is Canada's second-largest i ...

and the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

coast of the Northwest Territories – the lands of the

Inuvialuit Settlement Region The Inuvialuit Settlement Region, abbreviated as ISR (; ), located in Canada's western Arctic, was designated in 1984 in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement by the Government of Canada for the Inuvialuit (''the real people''). It spans , including ...

. It was traditionally subsumed under a broader ''

''. Rather than a coherent language, Inuvialuktun is a politically motivated grouping of three quite distinct and separate varieties. It consists of ''

Sallirmiutun Sallirmiutun (formerly Siglitun) is the dialect of Inuvialuktun spoken by the Siglit, an Inuit group of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is mainly used in the Inuvialuit communities of Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and Tuktoyaktuk. Sallirmiutun ...

'' (formerly Siglitun; Inuvialuktun proper), the ''

Kangiryuarmiutun ''Kangiryuarmiutun'' (sometimes ''Kangirjuarmiut(un)'') is a dialect of Inuit languages, Inuit language spoken in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada by the Kangiryuarmiut, a Copper Inuit group. The dialect is part of the Inuvialuktun langu ...

'' dialect of

Inuinnaqtun Inuinnaqtun (, ; 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 Inuinna ...

in the East and the ''

Uummarmiutun Uummarmiutun (), Uummaġmiutun or Canadian Iñupiaq is the variant of Iñupiaq (or Inuvialuktun) spoken by the Uummarmiut, part of the Inuvialuit, who live mainly in the communities of Inuvik and Aklavik in the Northwest Territories of Canada. ...

'' dialect of Iñupiaq around

Inuvik Inuvik (''place of man'') is the only town in the Inuvik Region, and the List of municipalities in the Northwest Territories, third largest community in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located in what is sometimes called the Beaufort Delta Re ...

and

Aklavik Aklavik (Inuvialuktun: ''Akłarvik'') (from the Inuvialuktun meaning '' barrenground grizzly place'') is a hamlet located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Until 1961, with a population over 1,500, the community served ...

in the West. Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut constitute three of the eleven official languages of the Northwest Territories. Inuinnaqtun is also official alongside Inuktitut in Nunavut. The Inuvialuktun dialects are seriously

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

, as English has in recent years become the common language of the community. Surveys of Inuktitut usage in the NWT vary, but all agree that usage is not vigorous. According to

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

's 2016 Census 680 (22%) of the 3,110 Inuvialuit speak any form of Inuktitut, and 550 (18%) use it at home. Considering the large number of non-Inuit living in Inuvialuit areas and the lack of a single common dialect among the already reduced number of speakers, the future of the Inuit language in the NWT appears bleak. Inuvialuktun Dialect Map

History

Before the 20th century, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region was primarily inhabited by ''

Siglit The Sallirmiut (formerly Siglit) are an Inuit group residing in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. The Sallirmiut are regarded as part of the Inuvialuit, or western Canadian Inuit. Inuvialuit is a modern political identity that brings together S ...

'' Inuit, who spoke Siglitun, but in the second half of the 19th century, their numbers were dramatically reduced by the introduction of new diseases. Inuit from Alaska moved into traditionally Siglit areas in the 1910s and 1920s, enticed in part by renewed demand for furs from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

. These Inuit are called ''

Uummarmiut The Uummarmiut or Uummaġmiut (, ''people of the green trees'') is the name given to the Inuvialuit who live predominantly in the Mackenzie Delta communities of Aklavik and Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. Their language is known as Uumm ...

'' – which means ''people of the green trees'' – in reference to their settlements near the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

. Originally, there was an intense dislike between the Siglit and the Uummarmiut, but these differences have faded over the years, and the two communities are thoroughly intermixed these days.

Phonology

The

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

of Inuvialuktun and other

Inuit languages The Inuit languages are a closely related group of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and the adjacent subarctic regions as far south as Labrador. The Inuit ...

can be found at Inuit phonology. Most

have fifteen

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

s and three

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

qualities (with phonemic

length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with Dimension (physical quantity), dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a Base unit (measurement), base unit for length is chosen, ...

distinctions for each). Although Inupiatun and Qawiaraq have

retroflex consonant A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

s, retroflexes have otherwise disappeared in all the Canadian and Greenlandic dialects.

Writing system

Inuvialuktun and Inuinnaqtun are written in a

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

and have no tradition of

Inuktitut syllabics Inuktitut syllabics (, or , ) is an abugida-type writing system used in Canada by the Inuktitut-speaking Inuit of the Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Nunavut and the Nunavik region of Quebec. In 1976, the Language Commission of ...

.Harper, Kenn. ''Current Status of Writing Systems for Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun''. ellowknife, N.W.T. Northwest Territories, Culture and Communications, 1992. However, the dialects spoken in Nunavut, east of the Inuinnaqtun region use syllabics.

Dialects

The Inuvialuktun dialects are seriously endangered, as English has in recent years become the common language of the community. Surveys of Inuktitut usage in the NWT vary, but all agree that usage is not vigorous. According to the ''Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre'', only 10% of the roughly 4,000 Inuvialuit speak any form of Inuktitut, and only 4% use it at home.

's 2001 Census report is only slightly better, reporting 765 self-identified Inuktitut speakers out of a self-reported Inuvialuit population of 3,905. Considering the large number of non-Inuit living in Inuvialuit areas and the lack of a single common dialect among the already reduced number of speakers, the future of the Inuit language in the NWT appears bleak. From east to west, the dialects are: * ''Iglulingmiut'' or

North Baffin The North Baffin dialect (''Qikiqtaaluk uannangani'' or ''Iglulingmiut'') of Inuktitut is spoken on the northern part of Baffin Island, at Igloolik and the adjacent part of the Melville Peninsula, and in other Inuit communities in the far nort ...

, spoken on western

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada, the second-largest island in the Americas (behind Greenland), and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is (slightly smal ...

(contrast South Baffin dialect.) * '' Aivilingmiutut'' or Aivilik on the northern

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

shore of the

Kivalliq Region The Kivalliq Region (; Inuktitut syllabics: ᑭᕙᓪᓕᖅ) is an Region, administrative List of regions of Nunavut, region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the portion of the mainland to the west of Hudson Bay together with Southampton Island ...

* ''Kivallirmiutut'' or

Kivalliq The Kivalliq Region (; Inuktitut syllabics: ᑭᕙᓪᓕᖅ) is an administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the portion of the mainland to the west of Hudson Bay together with Southampton Island and Coats Island. The regional cen ...

or Caribou on the southern

shore of the Kivalliq Region * ''

Natsilingmiutut Natchilingmiutut (ᓇᑦᕠᓕᖕᒥᐅᑐᑦ), Netsilik , Natsilik, Nattilik, Netsilingmiut, Natsilingmiutut, Nattilingmiutut, or Nattiliŋmiutut is an Inuit language variety spoken in western Nunavut, Canada, by Netsilik Inuit. ( 'people fr ...

or Netsilik consists of three subdialects:'' Natsilik ''proper,'' Arviligjuaq'',''

Utkuhiksalik Utkuhiksalik, also known as Utkuhikhalik, Utkuhikhaliq, Utkuhiksalingmiutitut, Utkuhiksalingmiutut,Briggs, J. L. (1970), Never in anger. Portrait of an Eskimo family. Harvard University Press. Utkuhiksalingmiut Inuktitut, Utku,, or the Gjoa Haven ...

* ''

'' consists of four subdialects:

, Kugluktuk, Bathurst, Cambridge. The Kangiryuarmiutun subdialect is spoken in the small community of

Ulukhaktok Ulukhaktok ((Kangiryuarmiutun (Inuit): , ) and known until 1 April 2006 as ''Holman'' or ''Holman Island'') is a small Inuvialuit Settlement Region hamlet on the west coast of Victoria Island, in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, C ...

. Essentially the same as Natsilingmiutut. * ''

Siglitun Sallirmiutun (formerly Siglitun) is the dialect of Inuvialuktun spoken by the Siglit, an Inuit group of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is mainly used in the Inuvialuit communities of Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and Tuktoyaktuk. Sallirmiutun ...

'' was, until the 1980s, believed to be extinct, but it is still spoken by people in

Paulatuk Paulatuk () is a hamlet located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is located adjacent to Darnley Bay, in the Amundsen Gulf, and east of the Smoking Hills. The town was named for the coal that was found in the area in ...

Sachs Harbour Sachs Harbour ( ; ) is a Hamlet (place)#Canada, hamlet located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Situated on the southwestern coast of Banks Island in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, the population according to the 202 ...

and

Tuktoyaktuk Tuktoyaktuk ( ; , ) is an Inuvialuit hamlet near the Mackenzie River delta in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, at the northern terminus of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway.Montgomery, Marc"Canada now officially connected ...

. The Inuvialuk dialects spoken in Nunavut (that is, Iglulingmiut, Aivilingmiutut, Kivallirmiutut, and eastern Natsilingmiutut) are often counted as Inuktitut, and the government of the NWT only recognizes Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun. In addition, ''

'', the dialect of the ''

'' which is essentially identical to the Inupiatun dialect spoken in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

and so considered an Inupiat language, has conventionally been grouped with Inuvialuktun because it's spoken in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the NWT. Uummarmiutun is found in the communities of

and

Example phrases

, - , How much does it cost? , , Qanuq akitutigivaa? , , , - , How old is he/she? , , Qanuq ukiuqtutigiva? , , , - , What do you call it? , , Qanuq taivakpiung? , , , - , What is the time? , , Sumukpaung? , , , - , What for? , , Suksaq? , , , - , Why? Or how come? , , Suuq? , , , - , What? , , Suva?/Suna? , , ~ , - , Doesn't matter/It is ok , , Sunngittuq , , , - , What are you doing? , , Suvin? , , , - , It can't be helped! Too bad. , , Qanurviituq! , , , - , in fact, actually , , Nutim , , , - , Do it again! , , Pipsaarung! , , , - , Go ahead and do it , , Piung , , , - , It is cold out! , , Qiqauniqtuaq , , , - , Christmas , , Qitchirvik , , , - , Candy , , Uqummiaqataaq , , , - , Play music , , Atuqtuuyaqtuaq , , , - , Drum dancing , , Qilaun/Qilausiyaqtuaq , , / , - , Church , , Angaadjuvik , , , - , Bell , , Aviluraun , , , - , Jewels , , Savaqutit , , , - , Eskimo ice cream , , Akutuq , , , - , That's it! , , Taima! , ,

Notes

{{Authority control Agglutinative languages Indigenous languages of the North American Arctic Inuvialuit languages Copper Inuit Endangered Eskaleut languages