West Greenlandic ( da, vestgrønlandsk), also known as Kalaallisut, is the primary language of
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
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
Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other coun ...
.
Tunumiit
Tunumiit or Iivit are Greenlandic Inuit from Tunu or Kangia, the eastern part of Greenland. The Tunumiit live now mainly in Tasiilaq and Ittoqqortoormiit and are a part of the Arctic people known collectively as the Inuit. The singular for Tunu ...
and
Inuktun are the two other native languages of Greenland, spoken by a small minority of the population.
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
remains an important
lingua franca in Greenland and used in many parts of public life, as well as being the main language spoken by
Danes in Greenland.
An extinct
mixed trade language
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
known as
West Greenlandic Pidgin was based on West Greenlandic.
[Silvia Kouwenberg, John Victor Singler (ed.), ''The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies'', Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, West Sussex, p. 172.]
References
{{IndigenousAmerican-lang-stub
Greenlandic language
Inuit languages
Languages of Greenland
Indigenous languages of the North American Arctic