Proto-Inuit language
{{short description|Reconstructed ancestor of the Inuit languages}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2018}}
{{Infobox proto-language
| name = Proto-Inuit
| familycolor = Eskimo–Aleut
| era = ca. 1000 CE
| ancestor = Proto-Eskaleut
| ancestor2 = Proto-Eskimoan
| target = Inuit languages
}}
Proto-Inuit is the reconstructed proto-language of the Inuit languages, probably spoken about {{val|1000}} years BP by the Neo-Eskimo Thule people.{{sfn|Dorais|2014|p=104}} It evolved from Proto-Eskimo, from which the Yupik languages also evolved.{{sfn|Dorais|2014|p=101}}
Phonology
Doug Hitch proposes the following chart of consonant phonemes:{{sfn|Hitch|2017|p=4}}
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" |
| + Proto-Inuit phonemic chart |
| ! scope="col" | Labial
! scope="col" | Apical ! scope="col" | Lateral ! scope="col" | Palatal ! scope="col" | Velar ! scope="col" | Uvular |
| scope="row" | voiceless
| p || t || ɬ || c || k || q |
|---|
| scope="row" | voiced
| v || ʐ || l || j || ɣ || ʁ |
| scope="row" | nasal
| m || n || || || ŋ || |
References
{{Reflist|20em}}
=Works cited=
{{Refbegin|40em}}
- {{cite book
|last = Dorais
|first = Louis-Jacques
|title = The Language of the Inuit: Syntax, Semantics, and Society in the Arctic
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7BoLBAAAQBAJ
|year = 2014
|publisher = MQUP
|isbn = 978-0-7735-8176-0
}}
- {{cite journal
|last = Hitch
|first = Doug
|title = Proto-Inuit Phonology
|journal = Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics
|date = 2017-12-24
|volume = 39
|editor-last = Maddeaux
|editor-first = Ruth
|publisher = University of Toronto
|format = PDF
|url = https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/download/28599/21556
|access-date = 2018-09-26
}}
{{Refend}}