Inuvialuktun (part of ''Western Canadian Inuit/Inuktitut/Inuktut/Inuktun'') comprises several Inuit language varieties spoken in the northern

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

by Canadian

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...

who call themselves '' Inuvialuit''.Inuvialuktun Dialects
/ref> Some dialects and sub-dialects are also spoken in Nunavut.
/ref> and

Distribution and varieties

Inuvialuktun is spoken by the Inuit of the Mackenzie River delta, Banks Island, part of

Victoria Island Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the eighth-largest island in the world, and at in area, it is ...

and the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

coast of the Northwest Territories – the lands of the

Inuvialuit Settlement Region The Inuvialuit Settlement Region, abbreviated as ISR ( ikt, Inuvialuit Nunangit Sannaiqtuaq – INS; french: Région désignée des Inuvialuit – RDI), located in Canada's western Arctic, was designated in 1984 in the Inuvialuit Final Agreement ...

. It was traditionally subsumed under a broader ''

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

''. Rather than a coherent language, Inuvialuktun is a politically motivated grouping of three quite distinct and separate varieties. It consists of '' Sallirmiutun'' (formerly Siglitun; Inuvialuktun proper), the '' Kangiryuarmiutun'' dialect of Inuinnaqtun on

in the East and the '' Uummarmiutun'' dialect of Iñupiaq around

Inuvik Inuvik (''place of man'') is the only town in the Inuvik Region, and the third largest community in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located in what is sometimes called the Beaufort Delta Region, it serves as its administrative and service ce ...

and Aklavik in the West. Inuvialuktun, Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut constitute three of the eleven official languages of the Northwest Territories. Inuinnaqtun is also official alongside Inuktitut in Nunavut. The Inuvialuktun dialects are seriously

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

, as English has in recent years become the common language of the community. Surveys of Inuktitut usage in the NWT vary, but all agree that usage is not vigorous. According to

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

's 2016 Census 680 (22%) of the 3,110 Inuvialuit speak any form of Inuktitut, and 550 (18%) use it at home. Considering the large number of non-Inuit living in Inuvialuit areas and the lack of a single common dialect among the already reduced number of speakers, the future of the Inuit language in the NWT appears bleak. Inuvialuktun Dialect Map

History

Before the 20th century, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region was primarily inhabited by '' Siglit'' Inuit, who spoke Siglitun, but in the second half of the 19th century, their numbers were dramatically reduced by the introduction of new diseases. Inuit from Alaska moved into traditionally Siglit areas in the 1910s and 1920s, enticed in part by renewed demand for furs from the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

. These Inuit are called '' Uummarmiut'' – which means ''people of the green trees'' – in reference to their settlements near the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

. Originally, there was an intense dislike between the Siglit and the Uummarmiut, but these differences have faded over the years, and the two communities are thoroughly intermixed these days.

Phonology

The

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

of Inuvialuktun and other

Inuit languages The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and adjacent subarctic, reaching farthest south in Labrador. The related Yupik languages (spoken in weste ...

can be found at Inuit phonology. Most

have fifteen

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...

s and three

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...

qualities (with phonemic

length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a base unit for length is chosen, from which all other units are derived. In the Inte ...

distinctions for each). Although Inupiatun and Qawiaraq have

retroflex consonant A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the h ...

s, retroflexes have otherwise disappeared in all the Canadian and Greenlandic dialects.

Writing system

Inuvialuktun and Inuinnaqtun are written in a

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

and have no tradition of Inuktitut syllabics.Harper, Kenn. ''Current Status of Writing Systems for Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun''. ellowknife, N.W.T. Northwest Territories, Culture and Communications, 1992. However, the dialects spoken in Nunavut, east of the Inuinnaqtun region use syllabics.

Dialects

The Inuvialuktun dialects are seriously endangered, as English has in recent years become the common language of the community. Surveys of Inuktitut usage in the NWT vary, but all agree that usage is not vigorous. According to the ''Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre'', only 10% of the roughly 4,000 Inuvialuit speak any form of Inuktitut, and only 4% use it at home.

's 2001 Census report is only slightly better, reporting 765 self-identified Inuktitut speakers out of a self-reported Inuvialuit population of 3,905. Considering the large number of non-Inuit living in Inuvialuit areas and the lack of a single common dialect among the already reduced number of speakers, the future of the Inuit language in the NWT appears bleak. From east to west, the dialects are: * ''Iglulingmiut'' or North Baffin, spoken on western

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

(contrast South Baffin dialect.) * '' Aivilingmiutut'' or Aivilik on the northern

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

shore of the Kivalliq Region * ''Kivallirmiutut'' or Kivalliq or Caribou on the southern

shore of the Kivalliq Region * '' Natsilingmiutut or Netsilik consists of three subdialects:'' Natsilik ''proper,'' Arviligjuaq'',''

Utkuhiksalik Utkuhiksalik, Utkuhikhalik, Utkuhikhaliq, Utkuhiksalingmiutitut, Utkuhiksalingmiutut,Briggs, J. L. (1970), Never in anger. Portrait of an Eskimo family. Harvard University Press. Utkuhiksalingmiut Inuktitut, Utku,, Gjoa Haven dialect, is a sub-di ...

* '' Inuinnaqtun'' consists of four subdialects: Kangiryuarmiutun, Kugluktuk, Bathurst, Cambridge. The Kangiryuarmiutun subdialect is spoken in the small community of

Ulukhaktok Ulukhaktok (Kangiryuarmiutun (Inuit language) spelling ''Ulukhaqtuuq'' () and known until 1 April 2006 as ''Holman'' or ''Holman Island'') is a small hamlet on the west coast of Victoria Island, in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, ...

. Essentially the same as Natsilingmiutut. * '' Siglitun'' was, until the 1980s, believed to be extinct, but it is still spoken by people in Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and Tuktoyaktuk. The Inuvialuk dialects spoken in Nunavut (that is, Iglulingmiut, Aivilingmiutut, Kivallirmiutut, and eastern Natsilingmiutut) are often counted as Inuktitut, and the government of the NWT only recognizes Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun. In addition, '' Uummarmiutun'', the dialect of the '' Uummarmiut'' which is essentially identical to the Inupiatun dialect spoken in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

and so considered an Inupiat language, has conventionally been grouped with Inuvialuktun because it's spoken in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the NWT. Uummarmiutun is found in the communities of

and Aklavik.

Example phrases

, - , How much does it cost? , , Qanuq akitutigivaa? , , , - , How old is he/she? , , Qanuq ukiuqtutigiva? , , , - , What do you call it? , , Qanuq taivakpiung? , , , - , What is the time? , , Sumukpaung? , , , - , What for? , , Suksaq? , , , - , Why? Or how come? , , Suuq? , , , - , What? , , Suva?/Suna? , , ~ , - , Doesn't matter/It is ok , , Sunngittuq , , , - , What are you doing? , , Suvin? , , , - , It can't be helped! Too bad. , , Qanurviituq! , , , - , in fact, actually , , Nutim , , , - , Do it again! , , Pipsaarung! , , , - , Go ahead and do it , , Piung , , , - , It is cold out! , , Qiqauniqtuaq , , , - , Christmas , , Qitchirvik , , , - , Candy , , Uqummiaqataaq , , , - , Play music , , Atuqtuuyaqtuaq , , , - , Drum dancing , , Qilaun/Qilausiyaqtuaq , , / , - , Church , , Angaadjuvik , , , - , Bell , , Aviluraun , , , - , Jewels , , Savaqutit , , , - , Eskimo ice cream , , Akutuq , , , - , That's all! , , Taima! , ,

Notes

{{Authority control Agglutinative languages Indigenous languages of the North American Arctic Inuvialuit languages Copper Inuit Endangered Eskaleut languages