Canada

OTHER NAMES:
- KALAALLISUT (GREENLAND)
- INUTTUT (LABRADOR)
- INUVIALUCTUN (MACKENZIE DELTA)

MAIN FEATURES:

- IUPIAQ (ALASKA)

1. Type of writing system = syllabary

- ESKIMO (ENGLISH AND OTHER LANGUAGES)

2. Writing direction: left to right in horizontal lines

3. The Inuktitut syllabary consists of a small number of basic
signs, the vowel sound attached to each one depends on its
orientation.

LOCATION: There are four Inuit regi-

Morphological type of language

ons in Canada, collectively known as

Inuit Nunangat. The term Inuit Nunan-

SPEAKERS: An Australian census of 2011 shows roughly 34.000 Inuktitut speakers including approximately

Sound system and special

phonological features

gat is a Canadian Inuit term that inclu-

1-SIMPLE VOWELS- There are three

des land, water, and ice.

basic vowel sounds in the Inuit Language,

represented by the letters, i, u, and a.

200 people who live outside of Canada.

2-VOWELS withQ and R-When the vowels i or u appear before q or r, they tend to

ge in which words tend to consist of

agglutinative language, and roots can take many

several morphemes.

involves 252 different inflections. Inuktitut is extremely hard to learn.

- /
iqaluk/ = fish
-/uumajuq/

3-LONG (DOUBLE) VOWELS- To get the

= animal

rhythm of the language right, its necessary

suffixes, in some cases up to 700. Verbs have 63

forms of the present indicative, and conjugation

= street

become softer.

A polysynthetic language is a languaTYPE OF LANGUAGE: Inuktitut is a polysynthetic-

- /aqqut/

to pay attention to how some vowels are

held longer than others. The written lan-

An agglutinative language is a lan-

guage marks these long vowel sounds

guage in which words are made up of

a

linear

sequence

tinct morphemes and

each

of

discompo-

nent of meaning is represented by its

- /mai/= May

with double vowels.

The Inuit Language uses a phonetic writing system

that (unlike English or French) represents how words
are actually pronounced. This makes the task of
learning to pronounce new words much easier.

4-VOWELS IN COMBINATIONTwo vowels can also be put together to cre-

- /nirivik/
= restaurant

 Word order:

Morphosyntactic features

Subject object verb

Jaan mumi-qqau-juq ullaaq
John dance-Past-PAR4-3sg this morning

- In

can
t
u
t
ukti

e
t th
mi

sub

t
nd
a
t
jec

bje
eo

ct.

Inflection:

, per

Pronoun System:

2p

Pronoun forms
Singular
Plural
Uanga
Uagut
Illit
Ilissi

3p

Una

1p

Personal pronouns
Singular

Dual

Plural

1p

Uvanga

Uvaguk

Uvagut

2p

Ivvit

Llitsik

Llits

3p

Una

Ukua

Ukua

Inuktitut Tusaalanga < http://www.tusaalanga.ca/node/2441 >

uku
Affixes
Nirijunga
Sinktuq
Aullaqtut

Verb classes:

I eat
She sleeps
They depart

c. Antipassive with overt object

anguti-up arnaqkunik-taa

angutkunik-si-vuq arna-mik

Man-erg woman (abs) kiss-part.3/3sg

Man abs) kiss -AP-ind.3sg woman-instr.

The man is kissing the woman.

The man is kissing a woman.

b. Intransitive

Verbal inflection:

Noun classes:
Inuktitut terms that indicate people, beings,
things, places, phenomens, qualities or ideas.

angut niri-vuq

d. Antipassive with non-overt

object

Man (abs) eat-ind.3sg

angutikunik-si-vuq

The man is eating.

Man (abs) kiss-AP-ind3sg.

The man is kissing someone.

Nouns can easily be switched to verbs or back and

forth

Verbal moods:

Category: Inuktitut proper nouns: Inuktitut

nouns that indicate individual entities, such
as names of persons, places or organizations.

SUBJECT
1sS
1dS
1pS
2sS
2dS
2pS
3sS
3dS
3pS

Nominal inflection

The System of verbal inflection in

Inuktitut is particularly rich, there are
about 900 verbal inflections for:

OBJECT
2sO
-jagit
-jattigit
-jattigit

2dO
-jattik
-jattik
-jattik

-jaatit
-jaatit

-jaatik
-jaatik

-junga
-jugut
-jugut
-jutit
-jutik
-jusi
-juq
-juuk

1sO

1dO

1pO

-jarma
-jattinga
-jatsinga
-jaanga
-jaanga

-jattiguk
-jattiguk
-jattiguk
-jaatiguk
-jaatiguk

-jattigut
-jattigut
-jattigut
-jaatigut
-jaatigut

-jut

-jaanga

-jaatiguk -jaatigut -jaatit

2pO
-jatsi
-jatsi
-jatsi

3sO
-jara
-javuk
-javut

-jait

-jatik

-jasi
-jaasi -janga
-jaasi -jangak

3dO
-jaakka
-jaavuk
-jaavut
-jaakik
-jaatik
-jaasi
-jaangik
-jaangik

3pO
-jakka
-javuk
-javut
-jatit
-jatik
-jasi
-jangit
-jangit

-jaatik -jaasi -jangat -jaangik -jangit

Alllen, Shanley. The acquisition of ergativity in Inuktitut. University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern

Participal

Qarasaujaq=Computer

Conditional

Indicative

Dubitative

Imperative

Contemporative

Interrogative

Incontemporative

Causative

Inuktitut Tusaalanga < http://www.tusaalanga.ca/node/2441

a. Ergative

While
Inukti
tut us
word
es 10
, Engl
morp
ish on
heme
ly use
s, mo
s 1 or
re or
2.
less

Qarasaujaqtuq=Hes using a computer. Hes on the

computer.

Im fr
om he
re

Four persons:

Bibliography

First

- Inuktitut Tusaalanga < www.tusaalanga.ca >

Second

- Allen, Shanley. The acquisition of ergativity in Inuktitut. University of Kaiserslatern, Kaiserslautern

Third disjoint

- Spreng, Bettina. Verb classes in Inuktitut and the Transitivity Hierarchy: Aspecs of Antipassive. University of
Toronto, Toronto

Third coreferent

The coreferent inflection is used when the subject

of the main and subordinate clause are the same.
The disjoint inflection is used when the subject of
the main and subordinate clause are different.

Three numbers:

Singular

Dual

Plural

- Tigullaraq, Elijah. 2008

- Cook, Gina. Morphological Analysus of Inuktitut. Statistical Natural Lanuage Processing. Final project. Concordia University, Montral.
- Allen, Shanley. Language Acquisition in Inuktitut-English. Bilinguals. Boston University, Boston
- Inuit-Yupik-Aleut Languages <www.sorosoro.org/en/eskimo-aleut-languages>
ngela Snchez, Marta Prats and Marc Gibert