Inuktitut

Inuktitut is a language of the Arctic, spoken by Inuits in Canada and in Greenland. Inuktitut is a very complex language. It is an official language in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Inuktitut
Eastern Canadian Inuktitut ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ
Distribution of Inuit languages across the Arctic. East Inuktitut dialects are those east of Hudson Bay, here coloured dark blue (on the south of Baffin Island), red and pink, and the brown in NW Greenland.
Native to	Canada, United States
Region	Northwest Territories, Nunatsiavut (Newfoundland and Labrador), Nunavik (Quebec), Nunavut, Alaska
Native speakers	39,475  (2016 census) 36,000 together with Inuvialuktun (2006)
Language family	Eskimo–Aleut Eskimo Inuit Inuktitut
Dialects	Qikiqtaaluk nigiani (South Baffin) Nunavimmiutitut (Quebec) Inuttitut (Labrador) Inuktun (Thule)
Writing system	Inuktitut syllabics, Inuktitut Braille, Latin
Official status
Official language in	Nunavut Northwest Territories
Recognised minority language in	Quebec (Nunavik) Newfoundland and Labrador (Nunatsiavut) Yukon (Inuvialuit Settlement Region)
Regulated by	Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and various other local institutions.
Language codes
ISO 639-1	iu
ISO 639-2	iku
ISO 639-3	iku – inclusive code Inuktitut Individual codes: ike – Eastern Canadian Inuktitut ikt – Inuinnaqtun

Distribution of Inuit language variants across the Arctic.

The Inuit write Inuktitut in two ways. One way to write Inuktitut is by using the Roman alphabet. The other way to write Inuktitut is by using an abugida, which is a kind of alphabet which has letters based on syllables.

The Inuktitut syllabary uses a small part of the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, a set of letters made up for writing down many of the languages of the First Nations people in Canada.

Some words in English come from Inuktitut or another Inuit language. Among them are the words anorak, igloo, and kayak.

Inuktitut Media

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  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.