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The total population of Inuit speaking their traditional language is difficult to assess with precision, since most counts rely on self-reported census data that may not accurately reflect usage or competence. Greenland census estimates place the number of speakers of Inuit dialects there at roughly 50,000, while Canadian estimates are at roughly 30,000. These two countries count the bulk of speakers of Inuit language variants, as usage in Alaska is increasingly moribund - roughly 3,000 Alaskans speak Inuit dialects out of a population of over 13,000 Inuit - and the language is almost certainly extinct in Russia. In addition, an estimated 7,000 Greenlandic Inuit live in European Denmark, but this is the largest group outside of Canada and Greenland. So, the global population of speakers of Inuit language variants is on the order of 90,000 people. WHAT IS THE INUIT LANGUAGE CALLED? The traditional language of the Inuit is a system of closely interrelated dialects that are not readily comprehensible from one end of the Inuit world to the other, and some people do not think of it as a single language but rather as a group of languages. However, there are no clear criteria for breaking the Inuit language into specific member tongues, since it forms a continuum of close dialects. Each band of Inuit understands its neighbours, and most likely their neighbours' neighbours; but at some remove, comprehensibility drops to a very low level. As a result, Inuit in different places use different words for their own variants and for the entire group of languages, and this ambiguity has been carried into other languages, creating a great deal of confusion over what labels should be applied to it. In Greenland, the official form of Inuit language, and one of the official languages of the state, is called '' Kalaallisut ''. In other languages, it is often called ''Greenlandic'' or some cognate term. However, neither the words ''Kallaalisut'' nor ''Greenlandic'' are generally used to refer to the variants of Canada or Alaska. In Alaska, the language is called '' Inupiatun '', but the variants of the Seward Peninsula are distinguished from the other Alaskan variants by calling them '' Qawiaraq '', or for some dialects, '' Bering Straits Inupiatun''. In Canada, the word '' Inuktitut '' is routinely used to refer to all Canadian variants of the Inuit traditional language, and it is under that name that it is recognised as one of the official languages of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories . However, one of the variants of western Nunavut is called '' Inuinnaqtun '' to distinguish itself from the dialects of eastern Canada, while the variants of the Northwest Territories are sometimes called '' Inuvialuktun '' and have in the past sometimes been called ''Inuktun''. In those dialects, the name is sometimes rendered as ''Inuktitun'' to reflect dialectical differences in pronunciation. The Inuit language of Quebec is called ''Inuttitut'' by its speakers, and often by other people, but this is a minor variation in pronunciation. In Labrador , the language is called ''Inuttut'' or, often in official documents, by the more descriptive name '' Labradorimiutut ''. Furthermore, Canadians - both Inuit and non-Inuit - sometimes use the word ''Inuktitut'' to refer to ''all'' of the Inuit language variants, including those of Alaska and Greenland. The phrase ''"Inuit language"'' is largely limited to professional discourse, since in each area, there is one or more conventional terms that cover all the local variants; or it is used as a descriptive term in publications where readers can't necessarily be expected to know the locally used words. But, this means that while you can call the French Language ''French'', you cannot call the Inuit language ''Inuit''. Saying ''"Peter speaks Inuit"'' is a very strange usage that most people who are familiar with the Inuit language would recognise as suspect, comparable to asserting that Hispanic s must speak ''"Hispanic"''. The word ''Inuit'' is generally reserved for the ethnic group, both from its Inuit language meaning - it refers specifically to a group of people - and in the way the word has been adopted in English . Although many people refer to the Inuit language as ''Eskimo language'', this is an ambiguous term that can also include Yupik (see Eskimo-Aleut Languages ), and is in addition strongly discouraged in Canada and diminishing in usage elsewhere. See the article on '' Eskimo '' for more information on this word. CLASSIFICATION AND HISTORY The language of the Inuit is an Eskimo-Aleut Language . It is fairly closely related to the Yupik Language s, and more remotely to the Aleut Language s. These cousin languages are all spoken in Western Alaska and Eastern Chukotka , Russia . It is not discernibly related to other North American or Northwest Asian indigenous languages, although some have proposed that it is related to Indo-European Languages as part of the hypothetical Nostratic superphylum, and there are those who consider it a Paleo-Siberian Language , although that is more a geographic than a linguistic grouping. Early forms of the Inuit language were spoken by the Thule People , who overran the Dorset Civilisation , which had previously occupied Arctic America, at the beginning of the Second Millennium . By 1300 , the Inuit and their language had reached western Greenland, and finally east Greenland roughly at the same time the Viking colony in southern Greenland disappeared. It is generally believed that it was during this centuries-long eastwards migration that the Inuit language became distinct from the Yupik Language s spoken in Western Alaska and Chukotka. Until 1902 , an enclave of Dorset People or ''Sadlermiut'' (in modern Inuktitut spelling ''Sallirmiut'') existed on Southampton Island . Almost nothing is known about their language, but the few eyewitness accounts tell of them speaking a "strange dialect". This suggests that they also spoke an Eskimo-Aleut language, but one quite distinct from the forms spoken in Canada today. The Yupik and Inuit languages are very similar syntactically and morphologically. Their common origin can be seen in a number of cognates: The western Alaskan variants retain a large number of features present in proto-Inuit language and in Yup'ik, enough so that they might be classed as Yup'ik languages if they were viewed in isolation from the larger Inuit world. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION AND VARIANTS The Inuit language is a fairly closely linked set of dialects which can be broken up using a number of different criteria. Traditionally, Inuit describe dialect differences by means of place names to describe local idiosyncracies in language: The dialect of Iglulik versus the dialect of Iqaluit , for example. However, political and sociological divisions are increasingly the principal criteria for describing different variants of the Inuit language 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 which are outside of traditional Inuit lands. Alaska ''See '' Inupiatun '' and '' Qawiaraq '' for more information.'' Of the roughly 13,000 Alaskan Inupiat , as few as 3,000 may still be able to speak Inuit language variants, with most of them over the age of 40. {Link without Title} Alaskan Inuit speak at least two fairly distinct dialects:
Canada ''See '' Inuktitut '' for more information.'' The Inuit language is an official language in the Northwest Territories , the official and dominant language of Nunavut , enjoys a high level of official support in Nunavik , a semi-autonomus portion of Quebec , and is still spoken in some parts of Labrador . Generally, Canadians refer to all dialects spoken in Canada as '' Inuktitut '', but the terms '' Inuvialuktun '', '' Inuinnaqtun '' and '' Labradorimiutut '' have some currency in referring to the variants of specific areas. Greenland ''See '' Kalaallisut '' for more information.'' Greenland counts approximately 50,000 speakers of Inuit language variants, of whom over 90% speak west Greenlandic dialects at home.
PHONOLOGY AND PHONETICS ''See main article '' Inuit Language Phonology And Phonetics ''.'' Eastern Canadian Inuit language variants have fifteen Consonant s and three Vowel s (which can be long or short). Consonants are arranged with five s, voiced Continuant s and Nasals , as well as two additional sounds — voiceless Fricative s. The Alaskan dialects have an additional manner of articulation, the '' Retroflex '', which was present in proto-Inuit language. Retroflexes have disappeared in all the Canadian and Greenlandic dialects, except for the phoneme // in Natsilingmiutut, which derives from a former retroflex. Almost all Inuit language variants have only three basic vowels and make a phonological distinction between short and long forms of all vowels. The only exceptions are at the extreme edges of the Inuit world - parts of Greenland, and in western Alaska. MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX ''See '' Inuit Language Morphology And Syntax '' for a more detailed description specific to Nunavut Inuktitut.'' The Inuit language, like other and Polysynthetic Language ) All Inuit language words begin with a root morpheme to which other morphemes are suffixed. The language has hundreds of distinct suffixes, in some dialects as many as 700. Fortunately for the learners, the language has a highly regular morphology. Although the rules are sometimes very complicated, they do not have exceptions in the sense that English and other Indo-European Languages do. This system makes words very long, and potentially unique. For example in central Nunavut Inuktitut : :tusaatsiarunnanngittualuujunga I can't hear very well. This long word is composed of a root word tusaa- - ''to hear'' - followed by five suffixes:
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