Languages Of Greenland
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Languages Of Greenland
The official language of Greenland is Greenlandic. The number of speakers of Greenlandic is estimated at 50,000 (85–90% of the total population), divided in three main dialects, Kalaallisut (West-Greenlandic, 44,000 speakers and the dialect that is used as official language), Tunumiit (East-Greenlandic, 3,000 speakers) and Inuktun (North-Greenlandic, 800 speakers). The remainder of the population mainly speaks Danish; Greenlandic Sign Language is the language of the deaf community. Greenland has been a very isolated and linguistically homogeneous island historically, but has nevertheless been home to several languages. Greenlandic Norse is believed to have been in language contact with Greenlandic, the language of the indigenous Kalaallit, and to have left loanwords in that language. It has been suggested that the female given name Kuuna derives from ''kona'', the Old Norse word for "woman" and "wife". The available evidence does not establish the presence of language ...
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Danish Sign Language
Danish Sign Language (, DTS) is the sign language used in Denmark. Classification Henri Wittmann (1991) assigned DSL to the French Sign Language family because of similarities in vocabulary. Peter Atke Castberg studied deaf education in Europe for two years (1803–1805), including at l'Épée's school in Paris, and founded the first deaf school in Denmark in 1807, where Danish Sign Language (DTS) developed. The exact relationship between DTS and Old French Sign Language (VLSF) is not known; Castberg was critical of l'Épée's 'methodical signs' and also receptive to local sign language in 1807, and may thus have introduced signs from VLSF to a pre-existing local language (or home sign(s)) rather than derived DTS from VLSF itself. In any case, Castberg introduced a one-handed manual alphabet in 1808 that was based on the Spanish manual alphabet. In 1977, the Danish Deaf Association adopted 'the international manual alphabet', which was an almost exact copy of the American ...
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Tourists
Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes". Tourism can be Domestic tourism, domestic (within the traveller's own country) or International tourism, international. International tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, tourism numbers declined due to a severe Economy, economic slowdown (see Great Recession) and the outbreak of the 2009 2009 flu pandemic, H1N1 influenza virus. These numbers, however, recovered until the COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to th ...
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Language Attrition
Language attrition is the process of decreasing proficiency in or losing a language. For first or native language attrition, this process is generally caused by both isolation from speakers of the first language ("L1") and the acquisition and use of a second language ("L2"), which interferes with the correct production and comprehension of the first. Such interference from a second language is likely experienced to some extent by all bilinguals, but is most evident among speakers for whom a language other than their first has started to play an important, if not dominant, role in everyday life; these speakers are more likely to experience language attrition. It is common among immigrants that travel to countries where languages foreign to them are used. Second language attrition can occur from poor learning, practice, and retention of the language after time has passed from learning. This often occurs with bilingual speakers who do not frequently engage with their L2. Several factor ...
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Loanword
A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term that is well established in the linguistic field despite its acknowledged descriptive flaws: nothing is taken away from the donor language and there is no expectation of returning anything (i.e., the loanword). Loanwords may be contrasted with calques, in which a word is borrowed into the recipient language by being directly translated from the donor language rather than being adopted in (an approximation of) its original form. They must also be distinguished from cognates, which are words in two or more related languages that are similar because they share an etymological origin in the ancestral language, rather than because one borrowed the word from the other. Examples and related terms A loanword is distinguished from a calque (or ...
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Kalaallit
Kalaallit are a Greenlandic Inuit ethnic group, being the largest group in Greenland, concentrated in the west. It is also a contemporary term in the Greenlandic language for the Indigenous of Greenland ().Hessel, 8 The Kalaallit (singular: ) are a part of the Arctic Inuit. The language spoken by Inuit in Greenland is known as Kalaallisut, known in English as Greenlandic. Name Probably adapted from the name '' Skræling'', ''Kalaallit'' historically referred specifically to Western Greenlanders. On the other hand, Northern and Eastern Greenlanders call themselves Inughuit and Tunumiit, respectively. About 80% to 88% of Greenland's population, or approximately 44,000 to 50,000 people identify as being Inuit.Hessel, 20 History Kalaallit are descended from the Thule people but probably not from their predecessors in Greenland, the Dorset culture.http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6200/1255832 Regions As 84% of Greenland's landmass is covered by the Greenland ice sheet, ...
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Language Contact
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum languages, or as the result of migration, with an intrusive language acting as either a superstratum or a substratum. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for their languages to influence each other. Intensive language contact may result in language convergence or relexification. In some cases a new contact language may be created as a result of the influence, such as a pidgin, creole, or mixed language. In many other cases, contact between speakers occurs with smaller-scale lasting effects on the language; these may include the borrowing of loanwords, calques, or other types of linguistic material. Multilingualism has been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world ...
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Greenlandic Norse
Greenlandic Norse is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Norse settlements of Greenland until their demise in the late 15th century. The language is primarily attested by runic inscriptions found in Greenland. The limited inscriptional evidence shows some innovations, including the use of initial ''t'' for '' þ'', but also the conservation of certain features that changed in other Norse languages. Some runic features are regarded as characteristically Greenlandic, and when they are sporadically found outside of Greenland, they may suggest travelling Greenlanders. Non-runic evidence on the Greenlandic language is scarce and uncertain. A document issued in Greenland in 1409 is preserved in an Icelandic copy and may be a witness to some Greenlandic linguistic traits. The poem is credited as ''Greenlandic'' in the Codex Regius, but the preserved text reflects Icelandic scribal conventions, and it is not certain that the poem was composed in Greenland. Greenl ...
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Inuktun Language
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 town of Qaanaaq, Inuktun is also spoken in the villages of (Inuktun names in brackets) Moriusaq (Muriuhaq), Siorapaluk (Hiurapaluk), Qeqertat (Qikiqtat), Qeqertarsuaq (Qikiqtarhuaq), and Savissivik (Havighivik). Classification The language is an Eskimo–Aleut language and dialectologically it is in between the Greenlandic language (Kalaallisut) and the Canadian Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun or Inuinnaqtun. The language differs from Kalaallisut by some phonological, grammatical and lexical differences. History The Polar Inuit were the last to cross from Canada into Greenland and they may have arrived as late as in the 18th century.Fortescue 1991. page 1 The language was first described by the explorers Knud Rasmussen and Peter Freuch ...
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Tunumiit Language
(), also known as East Greenlandic (), is the language of the Tunumiit in East Greenland. It is generally categorised as a dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ... of Greenlandic, but verges on being a distinct language.Nicole Tersis, in Variations on polysynthesis: the Eskaleut languages' Ch. 4Mennecier, Philippe (1995). Le tunumiisut, dialecte inuit du Groenland oriental: description et analyse. Collection linguistique, 78 (in French). Société de linguistique de Paris, Peeters Publishers. The largest town where it is the primary language is Tasiilaq on Ammassalik Island, with the island's name being derived from the West Greenlandic name of the town. Phonology Vowels Consonants The following sounds may also occur as geminated; /pː, tː, kː, q ...
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West Greenlandic
(), also known as West Greenlandic (), is the primary language of Greenland and constitutes the Greenlandic language, spoken by the vast majority of the inhabitants of Greenland, as well as by thousands of Greenlandic Inuit in Denmark proper (in total, approximately 50,000 people).Peter Schmitter, ''Sprachtheorien der Neuzeit: Sprachbeschreibung und Sprachunterricht'', Narr, 2007, p. 406. It was historically spoken in the southwestern part of Greenland, i.e. the region around Nuuk. Tunumiisut and Inuktun are the two other native languages of Greenland, spoken by a small minority of the population. Danish remains an important lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ... in Greenland and used in many parts of public life, as well as being the main language s ...
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Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenland are full Danish nationality law, citizens of Denmark and European Union citizenship, of the European Union. Greenland is one of the Special territories of members of the European Economic Area#Overseas countries and territories, Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union and is part of the Council of Europe. It is the List of islands by area, world's largest island, and lies between the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Arctic Archipelago, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It is the location of the northernmost point of land in the world; Kaffeklubben Island off the northern coast is the world's Northernmost point of land, northernmost undisputed point of land—Cape Morris Jesup on the mainland was thought to ...
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