Inupiat language

Inupiaq
Iñupiatun
Spoken in	United States, formerly Russia; Northwest Territories of Canada
Region	Alaska; formerly Big Diomede Island
Ethnicity	Inupiat
Native speakers	2,420 in Alaska  (2000 census)
Language family	Eskimo–Aleut Eskimo Inuit Inupiaq
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ik
ISO 639-2	ipk
ISO 639-3	ipk – Macrolanguage Individual codes: esi – North Alaskan Inupiatun esk – Northwest Alaska Inupiatun
Inuit dialects. Inupiat dialects are orange (Northern Alaskan) and pink (Seward Peninsula).

The Inupiat language, also known as Inupiatun, Inupiaq, Iñupiaq, Inyupiaq, Inyupiat, Inyupeat, Inyupik, and Inupik, is a group of dialects of the Inuit language, spoken in northern and northwestern Alaska. The Iñupiaq language is a member of the Eskimo languages group. There are roughly 2,100 speakers of Iñupiaq (Krauss, 2007). The speakers are known as Inupiat. The Iñupiaq letter ñ [ɲ] is pronounced as an English ny.

Dialects

There are four main dialect divisions and these can be organized within two larger dialect collections:

• Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq, consisting of:
  • Bering Strait: spoken on King Island and the Diomede Islands and in the villages north of Nome, Alaska; subdialects:
    • Diomede
    • Wales
    • King Island
  • Qawiaraq: spoken in Teller, near the original village of Qawiaraq, and in the villages south of Nome as far as Unalakleet; subdialects:
    • Teller
    • Fish River

• Northern Alaskan Iñupiaq: spoken south of Kivalina and around Kotzebue, along the Kobuk River and at the head of the Norton Sound, in Koyuk and Unalakleet; consisting of:
  • Malimiutun, consisting of subdialects:
    • Kobuk
    • Kotzebue
  • North Slope: spoken along the Arctic coast as far south as Kivalina; subdialects:
    • Common North Slope
    • Point Barrow
    • Anaktuvuk Pass (Nunamiut)
    • Uummarmiutun: spoken in the Mackenzie Delta (Aklavik and Inuvik) in the Northwest Territories, Canada

Linguistics

The Inupiaq dialects, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, represent a particular type of agglutinative language called a polysynthetic language: it "synthesizes" a root and various grammatical affixes to create long words with sentence-like meanings.

Inupiaq has three basic vowels: 'a', 'i', and 'u'. As short vowels, 'a' is pronounced like the 'u' in English 'nut', 'i' is like the 'ee' in the English word 'sleep' and 'u' is like the 'u' in the English word 'rule'. When adjacent to the uvular consonants 'q' and 'ġ', they are lowered, to 'au' in 'caught', 'a' in 'Kate' and 'oa' in 'coat', respectively. There are long forms of the basic values, written 'aa', 'ii', and 'uu'. In Inupiaq, long and short vowels must be distinguished because they make a difference in word meanings. Short vowels may be joined to produce the diphthongs 'ai', 'ia', 'au', 'iu', and 'ui'.

The vowel written 'i' is derived historically from two earlier vowels, one of which causes palatalization of the following consonant, and the other, which does not. Only in pedagogical texts are the two kinds of 'i' written differently.

Inupiaq has 14 consonants. All stops are voiceless, which means that Inupiaq has the sounds of English 'p', 't' and 'k' but not the sounds of English 'b', 'd', 'g'. The consonant written in Alaska as 'q' is like the English 'k' but pronounced further back in the throat. The Inupiaq sound written in Alaska as 'ġ' is pronounced as a buzz in the back of the throat, while 'g' is pronounced like the fricative in Spanish 'agosto'. 'ḷ' is like 'lli' in English 'million', 'ñ' is like 'ni' in 'onion', 'ŋ' is like 'ng' in 'singer', and 'ł' is the voiceless 'll' in Welsh 'Lloyd'.

Writing systems

Inupiaq was first written when explorers first arrived in Alaska and began recording words in the native languages. They wrote by adapting the letters of their own language to writing the sounds they were recording. Spelling was often inconsistent, since the writers invented it as they wrote. Unfamiliar sounds were often confused with other sounds, so that, for example, 'q' was often not distinguished from 'k' and long consonants or vowels were not distinguished from short ones.

Along with the Alaskan and Siberian Yupik, the Inupiat eventually adopted the Latin script (Qaliujaaqpait) that Moravian missionaries developed in Greenland and Labrador. Native Alaskans also developed a system of pictographs, which, however, died with its creators.

In 1946, Roy Ahmaogak, an Inupiaq Presbyterian minister from Barrow, worked with Eugene Nida, a member of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, to develop the current Iñupiaq alphabet based on the Latin script. Although some changes have been made since its origin—most notably the change from 'dotted-k' to 'q'—the essential system was accurate and is still in use.

Inupiaq alphabet (Atchagat)

A a	Ch ch	G g	Ġ ġ	H h	I i	K k	L l	Ḷ ḷ	Ł ł	Ł̣ ł̣	M m
a	cha	ga	ġa	ha	i	ka	la	ḷa	ła	ł̣a	ma
/a/	/tʃ/	/ɣ/	/ʁ/	/h/	/i/	/k/	/l/	/ʎ/	/ɬ/	/ʎ̥/	/m/
N n	Ñ ñ	Ŋ ŋ	P p	Q q	R r	S s	Sr sr	T t	U u	V v	Y y
na	ña	ŋa	pa	qa	ra	sa	sra	ta	u	va	ya
/n/	/ɲ/	/ŋ/	/p/	/q/	/ʐ/	/s/	/ʂ/	/t/	/u/	/v/	/j/

Alaskan Iñupiaq Alphabet

A

Ch

G

Ġ

H

I

K

L

Ḷ

Ł

Ł̣

M

N

Ñ

Ŋ

P

Q

R

S

Sr

T

U

V

Y

a

ch

g

ġ

h

i

k

l

ḷ

ł

ł̣

m

n

ñ

ŋ

p

q

r

s

sr

t

u

v

y

/a/

/tʃ/

/ɣ/

/ʁ/

/h/

/i/

/k/

/l/

/ʎ/

/ɬ/

/ʎ̥/

/m/

/n/

/ɲ/

/ŋ/

/p/

/q/

/ʐ/

/s/

/ʂ/

/t/

/u/

/v/

/j/

extra letters for Alaskan dialectic usage:

• Diomede : e
• Bering  : w , z , zr
• Kobuk : ’
• Seward : b

Canadian Iñupiaq Alphabet

A

Ch

F

G

H

Dj

I

K

L

Ł

M

N

Ñ

Ng

P

Q

R

Ȓ

T

U

V

Y

a

ch

f

g

h

dj

i

k

l

ł

m

n

ñ

ng

p

q

r

ȓ

t

u

v

y

Text Sample

This is a sample of the Inupiaq language of the Kobuk river Eskimos (re-transcribed with q for ḳ).

Kayuqtuq ukiaġmi. Sikulġmiu-rami pisruktuaq tamaani. Qaluŋmik niġiruak tikiññiġaa iyyaġrim apiq-srukługu-aasriiñ, "Nakiñ taamna qa-lik piviuŋ?"

"Kanakŋa sikuiḷḷiġumun pamium-nik niksiksuqługu niksiksikkaġa," itnaġniġaa.

This is the English translation, from the same source:

Fox and Blackbear were around at fall time as the first ice was forming. Bear came upon Fox eating a fish and asked him, "Where did you get that fish?"

"I hooked the fish with my tail down there where the river has open spots," said Fox.

Vocabulary comparison

The comparison of number names in the three dialects:

North Slope Iñupiaq	Northwest Alaska Iñupiaq (Kobuk Malimiut)	King Island Iñupiaq	meaning
atausiq	atausriq	atausiq	1
malġuk	malġuk	maġluuk	2
piŋasut	piñasrut	piŋasut	3
sisamat	sisamat	sitamat	4
tallimat	tallimat	tallimat	5
itchaksrat	itchaksrat	aġvinikłit	6
tallimat malġuk	tallimat malġuk	tallimat maġluuk	7
tallimat piŋasut	tallimat piñasrut	tallimat piŋasut	8
quliŋuġutaiḷaq	quliŋŋuutaiḷaq	qulinŋutailat	9
qulit	qulit	qulit	10
qulit atausiq	qulit atausriq	qulit atausiq	11
qulit malġuk	qulit malġuk	qulit maġluuk	12
qulit piŋasut	qulit piñasrut	qulit piŋasut	13
akimiaġutaiḷaq	akimiaŋŋutaiḷaq	agimiaġutailaq	14
akimiaq	akimiaq	agimiaq	15
akimiaq atausiq	akimiaq atausriq	agimiaq atausiq	16
akimiaq malġuk	akimiaq malġuk	agimiaq maġluuk	17
akimiaq piŋasut	akimiaq piñasrut	agimiaq piŋasut	18
iñuiññaŋŋutaiḷaq	iñuiñaġutaiḷaq	inuinaġutailat	19
iñuiññaq	iñuiñaq	inuinnaq	20
iñuiññaq qulit	iñuiñaq qulit	inuinaq qulit	30
malġukipiaq	malġukipiaq	maġluutiviaq	40
malġukipiaq qulit	malġukipiaq qulit	maġluutiviaq qulit	50
piŋasukipiaq	piñasrukipiaq	piŋasuutiviaq	60
piŋasukipiaq qulit	piñasrukipiaq qulit	piŋasuutiviaq qulit	70
sisamakipiaq	sisamakipiaq	.	80
sisamakipiaq qulit	sisamakipiaq qulit	.	90
tallimakipiaq	tallimakipiaq	tallimativiaq	100
kavluutit	.	kabluutit	1000

Further reading

• Barnum, Francis. Grammatical Fundamentals of the Innuit Language As Spoken by the Eskimo of the Western Coast of Alaska. Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1970.
• Blatchford, DJ. Just Like That!: Legends and Such, English to Inupiaq Alphabet. Kasilof, AK: Just Like That!, 2003. ISBN 0972330313
• Bodfish, Emma, and David Baumgartner. Iñupiat Grammar. Utqiaġvigmi: Utqiaġvium minuaqtuġviata Iñupiatun savagvianni, 1979.
• Kaplan, Lawrence D. Phonological Issues in North Alaskan Inupiaq. Alaska Native Language Center research papers, no. 6. Fairbanks, Alaska (Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, Fairbanks 99701): Alaska Native Language Center, 1981.
• Kaplan, Lawrence. Iñupiaq Phrases and Conversations. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, 2000. ISBN 1555000738
• MacLean, Edna Ahgeak. Iñupiallu Tanņiḷḷu Uqaluņisa Iḷaņich = Abridged Iñupiaq and English Dictionary. Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, 1980.
• MacLean, Edna Ahgeak. Beginning North Slope Iñupiaq Grammar. Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, 1979.
• Seiler, Wolf A. Iñupiatun Eskimo Dictionary. Kotzebue, Alaska: NANA Regional Corporation, 2005.
• Seiler, Wolf. The Modalis Case in Iñupiat: (Eskimo of North West Alaska). Giessener Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, Bd. 14. Grossen-Linden: Hoffmann, 1978. ISBN 3880980195
• Webster, Donald Humphry, and Wilfried Zibell. Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary. 1970.

External links

• Ethnologue on North Alaskan Inupiatun
• Ethnologue on Northwest Alaska Inupiatun
• Alaskool Inupiaq Language Resources
• Endangered Alaskan Language Goes Digital from National Public Radio
• Online Iñupiaq morphological analyser
• The dialects of Inupiaq- From Languagegeek.com, includes Northern Alaskan Consonants (US alphabet), Northern Alaskan Vowels, Seward Peninsula Consonants, Seward Peninsula Vowels