Editing Inuit languages (section)

== Geographic distribution and variants ==
[[File:Inuktitut dialect map.svg|thumb|center|upright=3|Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic]]

The Inuit languages are a fairly closely linked set of languages which can be broken up using a number of different criteria. Traditionally, Inuit describe dialect differences by means of place names to describe local idiosyncrasies in language: The dialect of [[Igloolik]] versus the dialect of [[Iqaluit]], for example. However, political and sociological divisions are increasingly the principal criteria for describing different variants of the Inuit languages because of their links to different writing systems, literary traditions, schools, media sources and borrowed vocabulary. This makes any partition of the Inuit language somewhat problematic. This article will use labels that try to synthesise linguistic, sociolinguistic and political considerations in splitting up the Inuit dialect spectrum. This scheme is not the only one used or necessarily one used by Inuit themselves, but its labels do try to reflect the usages most seen in popular and technical literature.

In addition to the territories listed below, some 7,000 Greenlandic speakers are reported to live in mainland [[Denmark]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kal |title=Inuktitut, Greenlandic: A language of Greenland |publisher=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |access-date=2012-02-20}}</ref> and according to the 2001 census roughly 200 self-reported Inuktitut native speakers regularly live in parts of [[Canada]] which are outside traditional Inuit lands.

=== Alaska ===
{{further|Inupiaq language}}

Of the roughly 13,000 Alaskan [[Iñupiat]], as few as 3000 may still be able to speak the Iñupiaq, with most of them over the age of 40.<ref name="Inupiaq">{{cite web |url=http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/langs/i.html |title=Alaska Native Languages: Inupiaq |publisher=University of Alaska Fairbanks |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424091828/http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/langs/i.html |archive-date=2006-04-24 |access-date=2012-02-20}}</ref> Alaskan Inupiat speak three distinct dialects, which have difficult mutual intelligibility:<ref>Linda Lanz (2010) ''A Grammar of Iñupiaq Morphosyntax'', PhD dissertation, Rice University</ref>

*Qawiaraq is spoken on the southern side of the [[Seward Peninsula]] and the [[Norton Sound]] area. In the past it was spoken in Chukotka, particularly [[Diomede Islands|Big Diomede island]], but appears to have vanished in Russian areas through assimilation into Yupik, [[Chukchi language|Chukchi]] and Russian-speaking communities. It is radically different in phonology from other Inuit language variants.
*Inupiatun (North Slope Iñupiaq) is spoken on the [[Alaska North Slope]] and in the [[Kotzebue Sound]] area.
*Malimiutun or Malimiut Inupiatun, which are the variants of the Kotzebue Sound area and the northwest of Alaska .<ref name="Inupiaq" />

=== Canada ===
{{further|Inuktitut}} {{further|Inuvialuktun}}

The Inuit languages are official in the [[Northwest Territories]] and [[Nunavut]] (the dominant language in the latter); have a high level of official support in [[Nunavik]], a semi-autonomous portion of [[Quebec]]; and are still spoken in some parts of [[Labrador]]. Generally, Canadians refer to all dialects spoken in Canada as ''[[Inuktitut]]'', but the terms ''[[Inuvialuktun]]'', ''[[Inuinnaqtun]]'', and ''[[Inuttut]]'' (also called ''Nunatsiavummiutut'', ''Labradorimiutut'' or ''Inuttitut'') have some currency in referring to the variants of specific areas.

==== Western Canadian Inuit ====
*[[Inuvialuktun]] (from west to east)
** [[Uummarmiutun]] (Canadian [[Iñupiaq language|Iñupiaq]])
**[[Siglitun]] (Sallirmiutun)
**[[Inuinnaqtun]]
**[[Natsilingmiutut]]
**[[Kivalliq dialect|Kivallirmiutut]] (Kivalliq)
**[[Aivilingmiutut]] (Ailivik)
**[[North Baffin dialect|Iglulingmiut]] (Qikiqtaaluk Uannanganii)

==== Eastern Canadian Inuit ====
*[[Inuktitut]]
**[[Qikiqtaaluk Nigiani]]
**[[Nunavimmiututut]]
**[[Inuttitut]] (Nunatsiavummiut)

=== Greenland ===
{{further|Greenlandic language}}

[[Greenland]] counts approximately 50,000 speakers of the Inuit languages, over 90% of whom speak west Greenlandic dialects at home.
*Kalaallisut, [[Greenlandic language|Greenlandic]] in English, is the standard dialect and official language of Greenland. This standard national language has been taught to all Greenlanders since schools were established, regardless of their native dialect. It reflects almost exclusively the language of western Greenland and has borrowed a great deal of vocabulary from Danish (in contrast the Canadian and Alaskan Inuit languages have tended to borrow from English, French or Russian). It is written using the Latin script. The dialect of the [[Upernavik]] area in northwest Greenland is somewhat different in phonology from the standard dialect.
*Tunumiit oraasiat, the [[Tunumiit dialect]] (or Tunumiisut in Greenlandic, often East Greenlandic in other languages), is the dialect of eastern Greenland. It differs sharply from other Inuit language variants and has roughly 3000 speakers according to Ethnologue.<ref name="Greenlandic">{{cite web|title=Greenlandic|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kal|website=Ethnologue}}</ref>
*[[Inuktun]] (Or Avanersuarmiutut in Greenlandic) is the dialect of the area around [[Qaanaaq]] in northern Greenland. It is sometimes called the Thule dialect or North Greenlandic. This area is the northernmost settlement area of the Inuit and has a relatively small number of speakers. It is reputed to be fairly close to the [[North Baffin dialect]], since a group of migratory Inuit from [[Baffin Island]] settled in the area during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It counts under 1000 speakers according to Ethnologue.<ref name="Greenlandic" />

Greenlandic was strongly supported by the Danish Christian mission (conducted by the Danish state church) in Greenland. Several major dictionaries were created, beginning with Poul Egedes's {{lang|la|Dictionarium Grönlandico-danico-latinum}} (1750) and culminating with Samuel Kleinschmidt's (1871) {{lang|da|Den grønlandske ordbog}} ('The Greenlandic Dictionary'), which contained a Greenlandic grammatical system that has formed the basis of modern Greenlandic grammar. Together with the fact that until 1925 Danish was not taught in the public schools, these policies had the consequence that Greenlandic has always and continues to enjoy a very strong position in Greenland, both as a spoken as well as written language.