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Inuktitut

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This article contains Canadian Aboriginal syllabic characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of syllabics.
Not to be confused with Western Canadian Inuktitut.
Inuktitut
Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ, inuktitut
Native toCanada
RegionNorthwest Territories, NunatuKavut, Nunatsiavut (Newfoundland and Labrador), Nunavik (Quebec), Nunavut
SpeakersL1: 38,000 (2021 census)[1]
L1 + L2: 42,000 (2021 census)[2]
Early forms
Dialects
Inuktitut syllabics, Inuktitut Braille, Latin
Official status
Official language in
Nunavut
Northwest Territories
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byInuit Tapiriit Kanatami and various other local institutions.
Language codes
ISO 639-1iu Inuktitut
ISO 639-2iku Inuktitut
ISO 639-3iku – inclusive code Inuktitut
Individual codes:
ike – Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
ikt – Inuinnaqtun
Glottologeast2534  Eastern Canadian Inuktitut
ELPInuktitut
Linguasphere60-ABB
Distribution of Inuit languages across the Arctic. East Inuktitut dialects are those coloured dark blue (on the south of Baffin Island), red, pink, and brown.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
PersonInuk, ᐃᓄᒃ
Dual: Inuuk, ᐃᓅᒃ
PeopleInuit, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ
LanguageInuit languages
CountryInuit Nunangat, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᑦ

Inuktitut (/ɪˈnʊktətʊt/ ih-NUUK-tə-tuut;[3] Inuktitut: [inuktiˈtut], syllabics ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ; from inuk, 'person' + -titut, 'like', 'in the manner of'), also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.[4]

It is recognised as an official language in Nunavut alongside Inuinnaqtun and both languages are known collectively as Inuktut. Further, it is recognized as one of eight official native tongues in the Northwest Territories.[5] It also has legal recognition in Nunavik—a part of Quebec—thanks in part to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, and is recognised in the Charter of the French Language as the official language of instruction for Inuit school districts there. It also has some recognition in NunatuKavut and Nunatsiavut—the Inuit area in Labrador—following the ratification of its agreement with the government of Canada and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The 2016 Canadian census reports that 70,540 individuals identify themselves as Inuit, of whom 37,570 self-reported Inuktitut as their mother tongue.[1][6]

The term Inuktitut is also the name of a macrolanguage and, in that context, also includes Inuvialuktun, and thus nearly all Inuit dialects of Canada.[7] However, Statistics Canada lists all Inuit languages in the Canadian census as Inuktut.[6]

History

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Inuktitut in the Canadian school system

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Before contact with Europeans, Inuit learned skills by example and participation. The Inuktitut language provided them with all the vocabulary required to describe traditional practices and natural features.[8] Up to this point, it was solely an oral language. Colonialism brought the European schooling system over to Canada. The missionaries of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches were the first ones to deliver formal education to Inuit in schools. The teachers used the Inuktitut language for instruction and developed writing systems.[9]

In 1928 the first residential school for Inuit opened, and English became the language of instruction. As the government's interests in the north increased, it started taking over the education of Inuit. After the end of World War II, English was seen as the language of communication in all domains. Officials expressed concerns about the difficulty for Inuit to find employment if they were not able to communicate in English. Inuit were supposed to use English at school, work, and even on the playground.[10] Inuit themselves viewed Inuktitut as the way to express their feelings and be linked to their identity, while English was a tool for making money.[8]

In the 1960s, the European attitude towards the Inuktitut language started to change. Inuktitut was seen as a language worth preserving, and it was argued that knowledge, particularly in the first years of school, is best transmitted in the mother tongue. This set off the beginning of bilingual schools. In 1969, most Inuit voted to eliminate federal schools and replace them with programs by the General Directorate of New Quebec [fr] (Direction générale du Nouveau-Québec, DGNQ). Content was now taught in Inuktitut, English, and French.[10]

Legislation

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Inuktitut became one of the official languages in the Northwest Territories in 1984. Its status is secured in the Northwest Territories Official Language Act. With the split of the Territory into NWT and Nunavut in 1999, both territories kept the Language Act.[5] The autonomous area Nunatsiavut in Labrador made Inuktitut the government language when it was formed in 2005. In Nunavik, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement recognizes Inuktitut in the education system.[11]

Languages and dialects

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Nunavut

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Nunavut's basic law lists four official languages: English, French, Inuktitut, and Inuinnaqtun. It is ambiguous in state policy to what degree Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun can be thought of as separate languages. The words Inuktitut, or more correctly Inuktut ('Inuit language') are increasingly used to refer to both Inuinnaqtun and Inuktitut together, or "Inuit languages" in English.[12]

Nunavut is the home of some 24,000 Inuit, over 80% of whom speak Inuktitut. This includes some 3,500 people reported as monolinguals. The 2001 census data shows that the use of Inuktitut, while lower among the young than the elderly, has stopped declining in Canada as a whole and may even be increasing in Nunavut.

The South Baffin dialect (Qikiqtaaluk nigiani, ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ᓂᒋᐊᓂ) is spoken across the southern part of Baffin Island, including the territorial capital Iqaluit. This has in recent years made it a much more widely heard dialect, since a great deal of Inuktitut media originates in Iqaluit. Some linguists also distinguish an East Baffin dialect from either South Baffin or North Baffin, which is an Inuvialuk dialect.

As of the early 2000s, Nunavut has gradually implemented early childhood, elementary, and secondary school-level immersion programmes within its education system to further preserve and promote the Inuktitut language. As of 2012, "Pirurvik, Iqaluit's Inuktitut language training centre, has a new goal: to train instructors from Nunavut communities to teach Inuktitut in different ways and in their own dialects when they return home."[13]

Nunavik

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Quebec is home to roughly 15,800 Inuit, nearly all of whom live in Nunavik. According to the 2021 census, 80.9% of Quebec Inuit speak Inuktitut.[14]

The Nunavik dialect (Nunavimmiutitut, ᓄᓇᕕᒻᒥᐅᑎᑐᑦ) is relatively close to the South Baffin dialect, but not identical. Because of the political and physical boundary between Nunavik and Nunavut, Nunavik has separate government and educational institutions from those in the rest of the Inuktitut-speaking world, resulting in a growing standardization of the local dialect as something separate from other forms of Inuktitut. In the Nunavik dialect, Inuktitut is called ` (ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑐᑦ). This dialect is also sometimes called Tarramiutut or Taqramiutut (ᑕᕐᕋᒥᐅᑐᑦ or ᑕᖅᕐᕋᒥᐅᑐᑦ).

Subdialects of Inuktitut in this region include Tarrarmiut and Itivimuit.[15] Itivimuit is associated with Inukjuak, Quebec, and there is an Itivimuit River near the town.

Labrador

[edit]

The Nunatsiavut dialect (Nunatsiavummiutut ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᕗᒻᒥᐅᑐᑦ or, often in government documents, Labradorimiutut) was once spoken across northern Labrador. It has a distinct writing system, developed in Greenland in the 1760s by German missionaries from the Moravian Church. This separate writing tradition, the remoteness of Nunatsiavut from other Inuit communities, has made it into a distinct dialect with a separate literary tradition. The Nunatsiavummiut call their language Inuttut (ᐃᓄᑦᑐᑦ).

Although Nunatsiavut claims over 4,000 inhabitants of Inuit descent, only 550 reported Inuktitut to be their native language in the 2001 census, mostly in the town of Nain. Inuktitut is seriously endangered in Labrador.

Nunatsiavut also had a separate dialect reputedly much closer to western Inuktitut dialects, spoken in the area around Rigolet. According to news reports, in 1999 it had only three very elderly speakers.[16]

Greenland

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Though often thought to be a dialect of Greenlandic, Inuktun or Polar Eskimo is a recent arrival in Greenland from the Eastern Canadian Arctic, arriving perhaps as late as the 18th century.

Phonology

[edit]
Main article: Inuit phonology

Eastern dialects of Inuktitut have fifteen consonants and three vowels (which can be long or short). Consonants are arranged with six places of articulation: bilabial, labiodental, alveolar, palatal, velar and uvular; and three manners of articulation: voiceless stops, voiced continuants and nasals, as well as two additional sounds—voiceless fricatives. Natsalingmiutut has an additional consonant /ɟ/, a vestige of the retroflex consonants of Proto-Inuit. Inuinnaqtun has one fewer consonant, as /s/ and /ɬ/ have merged into /h/. All dialects of Inuktitut have only three basic vowels and make a phonological distinction between short and long forms of all vowels. In Inuujingajut—Nunavut standard Roman orthography—long vowels are written as a double vowel.

Inuktitut vowels
IPA Inuujingajut Notes
open front unrounded Short /a/ a
Long /aː/ aa
closed front unrounded Short /i/ i Short i is realised as [e] or [ɛ] before uvular consonants [ʁ] and [q]
Long /iː/ ii
closed back rounded Short /u/ u Short u is realised as [o] or [ɔ] before uvular consonants [ʁ] and [q]
Long /uː/ uu
Inuktitut consonants in Inuujingajut and IPA notation
Labial Coronal Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop p t ɟ[a] k[b] ɡ[c] q
Fricative plain v s ʁ[d] h[e]
lateral ɬ
Approximant l j
  1. ^ The voiced palatal stop is absent from many dialects and is not written with a separate letter. If a distinction needs to be made between /j/ and /ɟ/, it is written as r̂.
  2. ^ In the Siglitun dialect, k is always pronounced as a fricative /x/. In other dialects, the fricative realization is possible between vowels or vowels and approximants.
  3. ^ In the Siglitun dialect, g is always pronounced as a fricative /ɣ/. In other dialects, the fricative realization is possible between vowels or vowels and approximants.
  4. ^ /ʁ/ assimilates [ɴ] before nasals.
  5. ^ /h/ replaces /s/ in Kivallirmiutut and Natsilingmiutut, and replaces both /s/ and /ɬ/ in Inuinnaqtun.

All voiceless stops are unaspirated, like in many other languages. The voiceless uvular stop is usually written as q, but sometimes written as r. The voiceless lateral fricative is romanized as ɬ, but is often written as &, or simply as l.

/ŋ/ is spelt as ng, and geminated /ŋ/ is spelt as nng.

Grammar

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Main article: Inuit grammar

Inuktitut, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, has a very rich morphological system, in which a succession of different morphemes are added to root words to indicate things that, in languages like English, would require several words to express. (See also: Agglutinative language and Polysynthetic language.) All words begin with a root morpheme to which other morphemes are suffixed. Inuktitut has hundreds of distinct suffixes, in some dialects as many as 700. However, it is highly regular, with rules that do not have exceptions like in English and other Indo-European languages, though they are sometimes very complicated.

One example is the word qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga (ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒃᑯᕕᒻᒨᕆᐊᖃᓛᖅᑐᖓ) meaning 'I'll have to go to the airport:[17]

Morpheme Meaning Morphophonological changes
qangata verbal root to raise/to be raised in the air
suuq verb-to-noun suffix one who habitually performs an action;
thus qangatasuuq: airplane		 -q is deleted
kkut noun-to-noun suffix group -t is deleted
vik noun-to-noun suffix enormous;
thus qangatasuukkuvik: airport		 -k changes to -m
mut noun ending dative singular, to -t+a changes to -u
aq noun-to-verb suffix arrival at a place; to go -q+ja is deleted
jariaq verb-to-noun suffix the obligation to perform an action -q is deleted
qaq noun-to-verb suffix to have -q is deleted
laaq verb-to-verb suffix future tense, will -q+j changes to -q+t
junga verb ending participle, first person singular, I

Writing

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Latin alphabets

[edit]

The western part of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories use a Latin alphabet usually called Inuinnaqtun or Qaliujaaqpait, reflecting the predispositions of the missionaries who reached this area in the late 19th century and early 20th.

Moravian missionaries, with the purpose of introducing Inuit to Christianity and the Bible, contributed to the development of an Inuktitut alphabet in Greenland during the 1760s that was based on the Latin script. (This alphabet is distinguished by its inclusion of the letter kra, ĸ.) They later travelled to Labrador in the 1800s, bringing the Inuktitut alphabet with them.

The Alaskan Yupik and Inupiat (who additionally developed their own syllabary) and the Siberian Yupik also adopted Latin alphabets.

Qaniujaaqpait

[edit]

Most Inuktitut in Nunavut and Nunavik is written using a scheme called Qaniujaaqpait or Inuktitut syllabics, based on Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.

In the 1860s, missionaries imported this system of Qaniujaaqpait, which they had developed in their efforts to convert the Cree to Christianity, to the Eastern Canadian Inuit. The Netsilik Inuit in Kugaaruk and north Baffin Island adopted Qaniujaaqpait by the 1920s.

In September 2019, a unified orthography called Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait, based on the Latin alphabet without diacritics, was adopted for all varieties of Inuktitut by the national organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, after eight years of work. It was developed by Inuit to be used by speakers of any dialect from any region, and can be typed on electronic devices without specialized keyboard layouts. It does not replace syllabics, and people from the regions are not required to stop using their familiar writing systems. Implementation plans are to be established for each region. It includes letters such as ff, ch, and rh, the sounds for which exist in some dialects but do not have standard equivalents in syllabics. It establishes a standard alphabet but not spelling or grammar rules.[18][19] Long vowels are written by doubling the vowel (e.g., aa, ii, uu). The apostrophe represents a glottal stop when after a vowel (e.g., maꞌna), or separates an n from an ng (e.g., avin'ngaq) or an r from an rh (e.g., qar'rhuk).[20]

Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait[19]
IPA Consonant a i u
p p pa pi pu
t t ta ti tu
k k ka ki ku
q q qa qi qu
s s sa si su
ɬ hl hla hli hlu
ʂ shr shra shri shru
h h ha hi hu
v v va vi vu
l l la li lu
ɟ rh rha rhi rhu
j j ja ji ju
g g ga gi gu
ʁ r ra ri ru
m m ma mi mu
n n na ni nu
ŋ ng nga ngi ngu
ŋŋ nng nnga nngi nngu
ʔ ꞌ aꞌ iꞌ uꞌ
The syllabary used to write Inuktitut (titirausiq nutaaq). The extra characters with the dots represent long vowels; in the Latin transcription, the vowel would be doubled.

In April 2012, with the completion of the Old Testament, the first complete Bible in Inuktitut, translated by native speakers, was published.[21]

Noted literature in Inuktitut has included the novels Harpoon of the Hunter by Markoosie Patsauq,[22] and Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk.[23]

The Canadian syllabary

[edit]
Main article: Inuktitut syllabics

The Inuktitut syllabary used in Canada is based on the Cree syllabary devised by the missionary James Evans.[24] The present form of the syllabary for Canadian Inuktitut was adopted by the Inuit Cultural Institute in Canada in the 1970s. Inuit in Alaska, Inuvialuit, Inuinnaqtun speakers, and Inuit in Greenland and Labrador use Latin alphabets.

Though conventionally called a syllabary, the writing system has been classified by some observers as an abugida, since syllables starting with the same consonant have related glyphs rather than unrelated ones.

All of the characters needed for the Inuktitut syllabary are available in the Unicode block Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. The territorial government of Nunavut, Canada, has developed TrueType fonts called Pigiarniq[25][26] (ᐱᒋᐊᕐᓂᖅ [pi.ɡi.aʁ.ˈniq]), Uqammaq[25][27] (ᐅᖃᒻᒪᖅ [u.qam.maq]), and Euphemia[25][28] (ᐅᕓᒥᐊ [u.vai.mi.a]) for computer displays. They were designed by Vancouver-based Tiro Typeworks. Apple Macintosh computers include an Inuktitut IME (Input Method Editor) as part of keyboard language options.[29] Linux distributions provide locale and language support for Inupiaq, Kalaallisut and Inuktitut.

Braille

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Main article: Inuktitut Braille

In 2012 Tamara Kearney, Manager of Braille Research and Development at the Commonwealth Braille and Talking Book Cooperative, developed a Braille code for the Inuktitut language syllabics. This code is based on representing the syllabics' orientation. Machine translation from Unicode UTF-8 and UTF-16 can be performed using the liblouis Braille translation system which includes an Inuktitut Braille translation table. The book ᐃᓕᐊᕐᔪᒃ ᓇᓄᕐᓗ (The Orphan and the Polar Bear) became the first work ever translated into Inuktitut Braille, and a copy is held by the Nunavut Territorial Library at Baker Lake, Nunavut.

See also

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Mother tongue by geography, 2021 Census". Statistics Canada. 2022-08-17.
  2. ^ "Knowledge of languages by age and gender: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions". Statistics Canada. 2022-08-17.
  3. ^ "Inuktitut". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
  4. ^ "field to show translation -> 10 facts about Canadian Aboriginal Languages". Wintranslation.com. 2014-02-12. Archived from the original on 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  5. ^ a b Dorais, Louis-Jacques (2010). The language of the Inuit: syntax, semantics, and society in the Arctic. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 9780773544451. OCLC 767733303.
  6. ^ a b "Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population, Comprehensive download files, Canada, provinces and territories" (CSV). Statistics Canada. August 5, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  7. ^ "Inuktitut | Ethnologue Free". Ethnologue (Free All). Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  8. ^ a b Dorais, Louis-Jacques (1995). "Language, culture and identity: some Inuit examples" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Native Studies. 15 (2): 129–308.
  9. ^ Fabbi, Nadine (2003). "Inuktitut – the Inuit Language" (PDF). K12 Study Canada. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Patrick, Donna (1999). "The roots of Inuktitut-language bilingual education" (PDF). The Canadian Journal of Native Studies. XIX, 2: 249–262.
  11. ^ Compton, Richard. "Inuktitut". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  12. ^ "Consolidation of (S.Nu. 2008, c.10) (NIF) Official Languages Act" (PDF). and "Consolidation of Inuit Language Protection Act" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 16, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  13. ^ Dawson, Samantha (2013-01-17). "A new way to nurture the Inuit language: train the instructors". NunatsiaqOnline. Archived from the original on 2013-02-08. Retrieved 2013-01-24.
  14. ^ "Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population, Profile table, Quebec15800". Statistics Canada. December 6, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
  15. ^ "Review". Arctic.synergiesprairies.ca. Archived from the original on 2014-02-24. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  16. ^ "A precious Inuktitut dialect slowly dies in Rigolet". Nunatsiaq News. 1999-05-07. Archived from the original on 2007-10-29. Retrieved 2012-06-13.
  17. ^ Dench, Catherine; Cleave, Patricia L.; et al. (2011). "The Development of an Inuktitut and English Language Screening Tool in Nunavut" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. 35 (2): 168–177. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  18. ^ Weber, Bob (2019-10-06). "Inuit combine nine different scripts for writing Inuktitut into one". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  19. ^ a b "National Inuit org approves new unified writing system". Nunatsiaq News. 2019-09-27. Retrieved 2019-10-07.
  20. ^ "Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait" (PDF). Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
  21. ^ Hebrew Bible published in Eskimo language Archived 2012-11-08 at the Wayback Machine, News/North Nunavut, 23 April 2012
  22. ^ "MARKOOSIE, 1942-: LMS-0017" Archived 2017-10-15 at the Wayback Machine. Collections Canada.
  23. ^ Martin, Keavy (17 January 2014). "Southern readers finally get a chance to read Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, the accidental Inuit novelist". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  24. ^ Aboriginal syllabic scripts Library and Archives Canada
  25. ^ a b c Tiro Typeworks: Syllabics Resources
  26. ^ Pigiarniq Font Download
  27. ^ Uqammaq Font Download
  28. ^ Euphemia Font Download
  29. ^ "Inuktitut Syllabic Fonts – Download". Archived from the original on 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2015-10-02.

Bibliography

[edit]

Although as many of the examples as possible are novel or extracted from Inuktitut texts, some of the examples in this article are drawn from Introductory Inuktitut and Inuktitut Linguistics for Technocrats.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Allen, Shanley. Aspects of Argument Structure Acquisition in Inuktitut. Language acquisition & language disorders, v. 13. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub, 1996. ISBN 1-55619-776-4
  • Balt, Peter. Inuktitut Affixes. Rankin Inlet? N.W.T.: s.n, 1978.
  • Fortescue, Michael, Steven Jacobson, and Lawrence Kaplan. Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates – second edition. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2011. ISBN 1555001092.
  • Kalmar, Ivan. Case and Context in Inuktitut (Eskimo). Mercury series. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada, 1979.
  • Nowak, Elke. Transforming the Images Ergativity and Transitivity in Inuktitut (Eskimo). Empirical approaches to language typology, 15. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996. ISBN 3-11-014980-X
  • Schneider, Lucien. Ulirnaisigutiit An Inuktitut–English Dictionary of Northern Québec, Labrador, and Eastern Arctic Dialects (with an English-Inuktitut Index). Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 1985.
  • Spalding, Alex, and Thomas Kusugaq. Inuktitut A Multi-Dialectal Outline Dictionary (with an Aivilingmiutaq Base). Iqaluit, NT: Nunavut Arctic College, 1998. ISBN 1-896204-29-5
  • Swift, Mary D. Time in Child Inuktitut A Developmental Study of an Eskimo–Aleut Language. Studies on language acquisition, 24. Berlin: M. de Gruyter, 2004. ISBN 3-11-018120-7
  • Thibert, Arthur. Eskimo–English, English–Eskimo Dictionary = Inuktitut–English, English–Inuktitut Dictionary. Ottawa: Laurier Books, 1997. ISBN 1-895959-12-8
[edit]
Inuktitut edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Inuktitut repository of Wikisource, the free library
Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Inuktitut.

Dictionaries and lexica

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Webpages

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Utilities

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