Inuttitut

{{Infobox language

| name = Inuttitut

| altname = Nunatsiavummiutitut, Labrador Inuktitut

| nativename =

| states = Canada

| region = Labrador

| speakers = ?

| familycolor = Eskimo-Aleut

| fam2 = Eskimo

| fam3 = Inuit / Inuktut

| fam4 = Inuktitut

| ancestor = Proto-Eskimo–Aleut

| ancestor2 = Proto-Eskimo

| ancestor3 = Proto-Inuit

| isoexception = dialect

| glotto = nuna1235

| glottorefname = Nunatsiavut

| map = Inuktitut dialect map.svg

| mapcaption = Inuit dialects. Nunatsiavummiutitut is the pink ({{color box|hotpink}}) in the east.

| map2 = Lang Status 60-DE.svg

| mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Nunatsiavummiutitut is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger}}}}

| dia1 = Northern

| dia2 = Southern

| script = Latin

}}

Inuttitut,{{Cite web |date=2019-09-26 |title=Labrador Inuit delegation disappointed Premier not available to discuss concerns with north coast ferry |url=https://nunatsiavut.com/labrador-inuit-delegation-disappointed-premier-not-available-to-discuss-concerns-with-north-coast-ferry/ |access-date=2023-10-15 |website=Nunatsiavut Government |language=en-US}} Inuttut,{{Cite web |title=Inuttut Dictionary : Labrador Virtual Museum |url=http://www.labradorvirtualmuseum.ca/home/inuttut_dictionary.htm |access-date=2023-10-15 |website=www.labradorvirtualmuseum.ca}} or Nunatsiavummiutitut{{Cite web |title=What is Inuktut? |url=https://nunatsiavut.tusaalanga.ca/about-Inuktut |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=tusaalanga.ca}} is a dialect of Inuktitut. It is spoken across northern Labrador by the Inuit, whose traditional lands are known as Nunatsiavut.

The language has a distinct writing system, created in Greenland in the 1760s by German missionaries from the Moravian Church.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} This separate writing tradition, the remoteness of Nunatsiavut from other Inuit communities, and its unique history of cultural contacts have made it into a distinct dialect with a separate literary tradition.

It shares features, including Schneider's Law, the reduction of alternate sequences of consonant clusters by simplification, with some Inuit dialects spoken in Quebec. It is differentiated by the tendency to neutralize velars and uvulars, i.e. {{IPA|/ɡ/}} ~ {{IPA|/r/}}, and {{IPA|/k/}} ~ {{IPA|/q/}} in word final and pre-consonantal positions, as well as by the assimilation of consonants in clusters, compared to other dialects. Morphological systems (~juk/~vuk) and syntactic patterns (e.g. the ergative) have similarly diverged. Nor are the Labrador dialects uniform: there are separate variants traceable to a number of regions, e.g. Rigolet, Nain, Hebron, etc.

Although Nunatsiavut claims over 4,000 inhabitants of Inuit descent, only 550 reported any Inuit language (Inuktut) to be their mother tongue in the 2001 census, mostly in the town of Nain. Inuttitut is seriously endangered.

Dialects

At one time, there existed two dialects of the Inuttut language. The northern dialect (spoken mainly in Nain) and the southern dialect (spoken only by a few elders in Rigolet).{{cite web |title=The Inuktitut/Inuttut Language |url=http://www.languagegeek.com/inu/inuktitut.html}} They differ only in phonology.

Alphabet

Nunatsiavut uses a Latin alphabet devised by German-speaking Moravian missionaries, which includes the letter ĸ (kra, often also written with an uppercase K). In 1980, the Labrador Inuit Standardized Writing System was developed during a meeting with elders and educators to provide consistency and clarity.{{cite web |url=https://www.biblesociety.ca/translation/labrador-inuttitut |title=Inuttitut (Labrador) |publisher=Canadian Bible Society |access-date=2016-08-24 |archive-date=2017-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215131536/https://www.biblesociety.ca/translation/labrador-inuttitut |url-status=dead }} The previous orthography used {{angle bracket|o}} to represent {{IPA|/u/}} before uvulars; however, the Labrador Inuttitut no longer has a distinct {{IPA|/q/}} at the end of syllables. In the new orthography, {{angle bracket|o}} represents {{IPA|/uu/}}.{{cite news |url=http://www.erudit.org/revue/etudinuit/2005/v29/n1/013939ar.html |first1=Catharyn |last1=Andersen |first2=Alana |last2=Johns |title=Labrador Inuttitut: Speaking into the future |periodical=Études/Inuit/Studies |volume=29 |issue=1–2 |year=2005 |pages=187–205}}

colspan="21" \| Capital letters
class="wikitable" style="align: center; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;"
Â \| A \| E \| F \| G \| H \| I \| J \| K \| Kʼ \| L \| M \| N \| O \| P \| R \| S \| T \| U \| V \| W
colspan="21" \| Lowercase letters
â \| a \| e \| f \| g \| h \| i \| j \| k \| ĸ \| l \| m \| n \| o \| p \| r \| s \| t \| u \| v \| w

The main difference with the Latin orthography used for other Inuktitut dialects are the following letters:

{{IPA|/aː/}} â = aa
{{IPA|/iː/}} e = ii
{{IPA|/uː/}} o = uu
{{IPA|/χ/}} ĸ = q
{{IPA|/ŋŋ/}} ng, n̲g̲ or ngng = nng

Vocabulary comparison

The comparison of some animal names in the two dialects of Inuktitut:

class="wikitable"

! Inuktitut[http://www.livingdictionary.com/ Inuktitut Living Dictionary]

! Inuttitut

! meaning

siksik ᓯᒃᓯᒃ

|sitsik

|ground squirrel

qugjuk ᖃᒡᔪᒃ

|ĸutjuk

|tundra swan

aarluk ᐋᕐᓗᒃ

|âlluk

|killer whale

amaruq ᐊᒪᕈᖅ

|amaguk

|grey wolf

isunngaq ᐃᓱᙵᖅ

|isungak

|pomarine jaeger

kanguq ᑲᖑᖅ

|kangak

|snow goose

tuktu ᑐᒃᑐ

|tuttuk

|caribou

tiriganniaq ᑎᕆᒐᓐᓂᐊᖅ

|tigiganniak

|arctic fox

umingmak ᐅᒥᖕᒪᒃ

|umimmak

|muskox

German loanwords

The German loanwords{{cite web | url=http://www.labradorvirtualmuseum.ca/english-inuttut.htm | title=English-Inuttut Dictionary }} used in Inuttitut date from the period of the German missionaries of Moravian Church (1760s).

ailvat (< Ger. elf) 'eleven'
ainsik (< Ger. eins) 'one o'clock'
fiarâ (< Ger. vier) 'four o'clock'
Fraitâg ( < Ger. Freitag) 'Friday'
kâttopalak (< Ger. Kartoffel) 'potato'
Metvog (< Ger. Mittwoch) 'Wednesday'
Montâg (< Ger. Montag) 'Monday'
naina (< Ger. neun) 'nine'
sâksit (< Ger. sechs) 'six'
senat (< Ger. zehn) 'ten'
sepat (< Ger. sieben) 'seven'
silipa (< Ger. Silber) 'coin'
situnati (< Ger. Stunde) 'hour'
Sontâg (< Ger. Sonntag) 'Sunday'
Sunâpint (< Ger. Sonnabend) 'Saturday'
suvai (< Ger. zwei) 'two'
suvailva (< Ger. zwölf) 'twelve'
tarai (< Ger. drei) 'three'
taraitijik (< Ger. dreißig) '30 odd 30 rifle and ammunition'
Tenistâg (< Ger. Dienstag) 'Tuesday'
Tonistâg (< Ger. Donnerstag) 'Thursday'
viaga (< Ger. vier) 'four'
vogik (< Ger. Woche) 'week'

Inuttitut

Dialects

Alphabet

Vocabulary comparison

German loanwords

References

Further reading