Contents

Iñupiaq language

Group of dialects of the Inuit language

Iñupiaq
Uqausiq/Uqausriq Iñupiatun, Qanġuziq/Qaġnuziq/Qanġusiq Inupiatun
Native to	United States, formerly Russia; Northwest TerritoriesofCanada
Region	Alaska; formerly Big Diomede Island
Ethnicity	20,709 Iñupiat (2015)
Native speakers	1,250 fully fluent speakers (2023)[1]
Language family	Eskaleut Eskimo Inuit Iñupiaq
Early forms	Proto-Eskimo–Aleut Proto-Eskimo Proto-Inuit
Writing system	Latin (Iñupiaq alphabet) Iñupiaq Braille
Official status
Official language in	Alaska,[2] Northwest Territories (asUummarmiutun dialect)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ik
ISO 639-2	ipk
ISO 639-3	ipk – inclusive code Individual codes: esi – North Alaskan Iñupiatun esk – Northwest Alaska Iñupiatun
Glottolog	inup1234
ELP	Inupiaq
Iñupiaq dialects and speech communities
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.

IñupiaqorInupiaq (/ɪˈnuːpiæk/ ih-NOO-pee-ak, Inupiaq: [iɲupiaq]), also known as Iñupiat, Inupiat (/ɪˈnuːpiæt/ ih-NOO-pee-at), IñupiatunorAlaskan Inuit, is an Inuit language, or perhaps group of languages, spoken by the Iñupiat people in northern and northwestern Alaska, as well as a small adjacent part of the Northwest Territories of Canada. The Iñupiat language is a member of the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan language family, and is closely related and, to varying degrees, mutually intelligible with other Inuit languages of Canada and Greenland. There are roughly 2,000 speakers.^[3] Iñupiaq is considered to be a threatened language, with most speakers at or above the age of 40.^[4] Iñupiaq is an official language of the State of Alaska, along with several other indigenous languages.^[5]

The major varieties of the Iñupiaq language are the North Slope Iñupiaq and Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq dialects.

The Iñupiaq language has been in decline since contact with English in the late 19th century. American territorial acquisition and the legacy of boarding schools have created a situation today where a small minority of Iñupiat speak the Iñupiaq language. There is, however, revitalization work underway today in several communities.

History[edit]

The Iñupiaq language is an Inuit language, the ancestors of which may have been spoken in the northern regions of Alaska for as long as 5,000 years. Between 1,000 and 800 years ago, Inuit migrated east from Alaska to Canada and Greenland, eventually occupying the entire Arctic coast and much of the surrounding inland areas. The Iñupiaq dialects are the most conservative forms of the Inuit language, with less linguistic change than the other Inuit languages.^{[citation needed]}

In the mid to late 19th century, Russian, British, and American colonists made contact with Iñupiat people. In 1885, the American territorial government appointed Rev. Sheldon Jackson as General Agent of Education.^[6] Under his administration, Iñupiat people (and all Alaska Natives) were educated in English-only environments, forbidding the use of Iñupiaq and other indigenous languages of Alaska. After decades of English-only education, with strict punishment if heard speaking Iñupiaq, after the 1970s, most Iñupiat did not pass the Iñupiaq language on to their children, for fear of them being punished for speaking their language.

In 1972, the Alaska Legislature passed legislation mandating that if "a [school is attended] by at least 15 pupils whose primary language is other than English, [then the school] shall have at least one teacher who is fluent in the native language".^[7]

Today, the University of Alaska Fairbanks offers bachelor's degrees in Iñupiaq language and culture, while a preschool/kindergarten-level Iñupiaq immersion school named Nikaitchuat Iḷisaġviat teaches grades PreK-1st grade in Kotzebue.

In 2014, Iñupiaq became an official language of the State of Alaska, alongside English and nineteen other indigenous languages.^[5]

In 2018, Facebook added Iñupiaq as a language option on their website.^[8] In 2022, an Iñupiaq version of Wordle was created.^[9][10]

Dialects[edit]

There are four main dialect divisions and these can be organized within two larger dialect collections:^[11]

Extra geographical information:

Bering Strait dialect:

The Native population of the Big Diomede Island was moved to the Siberian mainland after World War II. The following generation of the population spoke Central Siberian Yupik or Russian.^[12] The entire population of King Island moved to Nome in the early 1960s.^[12] The Bering Strait dialect might also be spoken in Teller on the Seward Peninsula.^[15]

Qawiaraq dialect:

A dialect of Qawiaraq is spoken in Nome.^[15][12] A dialect of Qawariaq may also be spoken in Koyuk,^[12] Mary's Igloo, Council, and Elim.^[15] The Teller sub-dialect may be spoken in Unalakleet.^[15][12]

Malimiutun dialect:

Both sub-dialects can be found in Buckland, Koyuk, Shaktoolik, and Unalakleet.^[15][12] A dialect of Malimiutun may be spoken in Deering, Kiana, Noorvik, Shungnak, and Ambler.^[15] The Malimiutun sub-dialects have also been classified as "Southern Malimiut" (found in Koyuk, Shaktoolik, and Unalakleet) and "Northern Malimiut" found in "other villages".^[15]

North Slope dialect:

Common North Slope is "a mix of the various speech forms formerly used in the area".^[12] The Point Barrow dialect was "spoken only by a few elders" in 2010.^[12] A dialect of North Slope is also spoken in Kivalina, Point Lay, Wainwright, Atqasuk, Utqiaġvik, Nuiqsut, and Barter Island.^[15]

Phonology[edit]

Iñupiaq dialects differ widely between consonants used. However, consonant clusters of more than two consonants in a row do not occur. A word may not begin nor end with a consonant cluster.^[15]

All Iñupiaq dialects have three basic vowel qualities: /a i u/.^[15][12] There is currently no instrumental work to determine what allophones may be linked to these vowels. All three vowels can be long or short, giving rise to a system of six phonemic vowels /a aː i iː u uː/. Long vowels are represented by double letters in the orthography: ⟨aa⟩, ⟨ii⟩, ⟨uu⟩.^[15] The following diphthongs occur: /ai ia au ua iu ui/.^[15][16] No more than two vowels occur in a sequence in Iñupiaq.^[15]

The Bering strait dialect has a fourth vowel /e/, which preserves the fourth proto-Eskimo vowel reconstructed as */ə/.^[15][12] In the other dialects, proto-Eskimo */e/ has merged with the closed front vowel /i/. The merged /i/ is referred to as the "strong /i/", which causes palatalization when preceding consonant clusters in the North Slope dialect (see section on palatalization below). The other /i/ is referred to as "the weak /i/". Weak and strong /i/s are not differentiated in orthography,^[15] making it impossible to tell which ⟨i⟩ represents palatalization "short of looking at other processes which depend on the distinction between two i's or else examining data from other Eskimo languages".^[17] However, it can be assumed that, within a word, if a palatal consonant is preceded by an ⟨i⟩, it is strong. If an alveolar consonant is preceded by an ⟨i⟩, it is weak.^[17]

Words begin with a stop (with the exception of the palatal stop /c/), the fricative /s/, nasals /m n/, with a vowel, or the semivowel /j/. Loanwords, proper names, and exclamations may begin with any segment in both the Seward Peninsula dialects and the North Slope dialects.^[15] In the Uummarmiutun dialect words can also begin with /h/. For example, the word for "ear" in North Slope and Little Diomede Island dialects is siun whereas in Uummarmiutun it is hiun.

A word may end in any nasal sound (except for the /ɴ/ found in North Slope), in the stops /t k q/ or in a vowel. In the North Slope dialect if a word ends with an m, and the next word begins with a stop, the m is pronounced /p/, as in aġnam tupiŋa, pronounced /aʁnap tupiŋa/^[15]

Very little information of the prosody of Iñupiaq has been collected. However, "fundamental frequency (Hz), intensity (dB), loudness (sones), and spectral tilt (phons - dB) may be important" in Malimiutun.^[18] Likewise, "duration is not likely to be important in Malimiut Iñupiaq stress/syllable prominence".^[18]

North Slope Iñupiaq[edit]

For North Slope Iñupiaq^[11][15][19]

The voiceless stops /p/ /t/ /k/ and /q/ are not aspirated.^[15] This may or may not be true for other dialects as well.

/c/ is derived from a palatalized and unreleased /t/.^[15]

Assimilation[edit]

Source:^[15]

Two consonants cannot appear together unless they share the manner of articulation (in this case treating the lateral and approximant consonants as fricatives). The only exception to this rule is having a voiced fricative consonant appear with a nasal consonant. Since all stops in North Slope are voiceless, a lot of needed assimilation arises from having to assimilate a voiceless stop to a voiced consonant.

This process is realized by assimilating the first consonant in the cluster to a consonant that: 1) has the same (or closest possible) area of articulation as the consonant being assimilated to; and 2) has the same manner of articulation as the second consonant that it is assimilating to. If the second consonant is a lateral or approximant, the first consonant will assimilate to a lateral or approximant if possible. If not the first consonant will assimilate to a fricative. Therefore:

* The sound /ɴ/ is not represented in the orthography. Therefore the spelling ġn can be pronounced as /ʁn/ or /ɴn/. In both examples 1 and 2, since voiced fricatives can appear with nasal consonants, both consonant clusters are possible.

The stops /t̚ʲ/ and /t/ do not have a corresponding voiced fricative, therefore they will assimilate to the closest possible area of articulation. In this case, the /t̚ʲ/ will assimilate to the voiced approximant /j/. The /t/ will assimilate into a /ʐ/. Therefore:

(In the first example above note that <sr> denotes a single consonant, as shown in the alphabet section below, so the constraint of at most two consonants in a cluster, as mentioned above, is not violated.)

In the case of the second consonant being a lateral, the lateral will again be treated as a fricative. Therefore:

Since voiced fricatives can appear with nasal consonants, both consonant clusters are possible.

The sounds /f/ /x/ and /χ/ are not represented in the orthography (unless they occur alone between vowels). Therefore, like the /ɴn/ example shown above, assimilation still occurs while the spelling remains the same. Therefore:

These general features of assimilation are not shared with Uummarmiut, Malimiutun, or the Seward Peninsula dialects. Malimiutun and the Seward Peninsula dialects "preserve voiceless stops (k, p, q, t) when they are etymological (i.e. when they belong to the original word-base)".^[12] Compare:

Palatalization[edit]

Source:^[15]

The following patterns of palatalization can occur in North Slope Iñupiaq: /t/ → /t̚ʲ/, /tʃ/ or /s/; /ɬ/ → /ʎ̥/; /l/ → /ʎ/; and /n/ → /ɲ/. Palatalization only occurs when one of these four alveolars is preceded by a strong i. Compare:

Please note that the sound /t̚ʲ/ does not have its own letter, and is simply spelled with a T t. The IPA transcription of the above vowels may be incorrect.

If a t that precedes a vowel is palatalized, it will become an /s/. The strong i affects the entire consonant cluster, palatalizing all consonants that can be palatalized within the cluster. Therefore:

Note in the first example, due to the nature of the suffix, the /q/ is dropped. Like the first set of examples, the IPA transcriptions of above vowels may be incorrect.

If a strong i precedes geminate consonant, the entire elongated consonant becomes palatalized. For Example: niġḷḷaturuq and tikiññiaqtuq.

Further strong versus weak i processes[edit]

Source:^[15]

The strong i can be paired with a vowel. The weak i on the other hand cannot.^[17] The weak i will become an a if it is paired with another vowel, or if the consonant before the i becomes geminate. This rule may or may not apply to other dialects. Therefore:

Like the first two sets of examples, the IPA transcriptions of above vowels may not be correct.

Uummarmiutun sub-dialect[edit]

For the Uummarmiutun sub-dialect:^[16]

Phonological rules[edit]

The following are the phonological rules:^[16] The /f/ is always found as a geminate.

The /j/ cannot be geminated, and is always found between vowels or preceded by /v/. In rare cases it can be found at the beginning of a word.

The /h/ is never geminate, and can appear as the first letter of the word, between vowels, or preceded by /k/ /ɬ/ or /q/.

The /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ are always geminate or preceded by a /t/.

The /ʐ/ can appear between vowels, preceded by consonants /ɣ/ /k/ /q/ /ʁ/ /t/ or /v/, or it can be followed by /ɣ/, /v/, /ʁ/.

Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq[edit]

For Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq:^[11]

Unlike the other Iñupiaq dialects, the Seward Peninsula dialect has a mid central vowel e (see the beginning of the phonology section for more information).

Gemination[edit]

In North Slope Iñupiaq, all consonants represented by orthography can be geminated, except for the sounds /tʃ/ /s/ /h/ and /ʂ/.^[15] Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq (using vocabulary from the Little Diomede Island as a representative sample) likewise can have all consonants represented by orthography appear as geminates, except for /b/ /h/ /ŋ/ /ʂ/ /w/ /z/ and /ʐ/. Gemination is caused by suffixes being added to a consonant, so that the consonant is found between two vowels.^[15]

Writing systems[edit]

Iñupiaq 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 Iñupiat eventually adopted the Latin script that Moravian missionaries developed in Greenland and Labrador. Native Alaskans also developed a system of pictographs,^[which?] which, however, died with its creators.^[20]

In 1946, Roy Ahmaogak, an Iñupiaq Presbyterian minister from Utqiaġvik, 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 'ḳ' to 'q'—the essential system was accurate and is still in use.

Extra letter for Kobuk dialect: ʼ /ʔ/

Extra letters for specific dialects:

• Diomede: e /ə/
• Qawiaraq: ch /tʃ/

Morphosyntax[edit]

Due to the number of dialects and complexity of Iñupiaq morphosyntax, the following section discusses Malimiutun morphosyntax as a representative. Any examples from other dialects will be marked as such.

Iñupiaq is a polysynthetic language, meaning that words can be extremely long, consisting of one of three stems (verb stem, noun stem, and demonstrative stem) along with one or more of three endings (postbases, (grammatical) endings, and enclitics).^[15] The stem gives meaning to the word, whereas endings give information regarding case, mood, tense, person, plurality, etc. The stem can appear as simple (having no postbases) or complex (having one or more postbases). In Iñupiaq a "postbase serves somewhat the same functions that adverbs, adjectives, prefixes, and suffixes do in English" along with marking various types of tenses.^[15] There are six word classes in Malimiut Inñupiaq: nouns (see Nominal Morphology), verbs (see Verbal Morphology), adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, and interjections. All demonstratives are classified as either adverbs or pronouns.^[18]

Nominal morphology[edit]

The Iñupiaq category of number distinguishes singular, dual, and plural. The language works on an Ergative–Absolutive system, where nouns are inflected for number, several cases, and possession.^[15] Iñupiaq (Malimiutun) has nine cases, two core cases (ergative and absolutive) and seven oblique cases (instrumental, allative, ablative, locative, perlative, similative and vocative).^[18] North Slope Iñupiaq does not have the vocative case.^[15] Iñupiaq does not have a category of gender and articles.^{[citation needed]}

Iñupiaq nouns can likewise be classified by Wolf A. Seiler's seven noun classes.^[18][22] These noun classes are "based on morphological behavior. [They] ... have no semantic basis but are useful for case formation ... stems of various classes interact with suffixes differently".^[18]

Due to the nature of the morphology, a single case can take on up to 12 endings (ignoring the fact that realization of these endings can change depending on noun class). For example, the possessed ergative ending for a class 1a noun can take on the endings: -ma, ‑mnuk, ‑pta, ‑vich, ‑ptik, -psi, -mi, -mik, -miŋ, -ŋan, -ŋaknik, and ‑ŋata. Therefore, only general features will be described below. For an extensive list on case endings, please see Seiler 2012, Appendix 4, 6, and 7.^[22]

Absolutive case/noun stems[edit]

The subject of an intransitive sentence or the object of a transitive sentence take on the absolutive case. This case is likewise used to mark the basic form of a noun. Therefore, all the singular, dual, and plural absolutive forms serve as stems for the other oblique cases.^[15] The following chart is verified of both Malimiutun and North Slope Iñupiaq.

If the singular absolutive form ends with -n, it has the underlying form of -ti /tə/. This form will show in the absolutive dual and plural forms. Therefore:

airplane

→

tiŋmisuutik

two airplanes

&

tiŋmisuutit

multiple airplanes

tiŋmisuun → tiŋmisuutik & tiŋmisuutit

airplane {} {two airplanes} {} {multiple airplanes}

Regarding nouns that have an underlying /ə/ (weak i), the i will change to an a and the previous consonant will be geminated in the dual form. Therefore:

boot

→

kammak

two boots

Kamik → kammak

boot {} {two boots}

If the singular form of the noun ends with -k, the preceding vowel will be elongated. Therefore:

knife

→

saviik

two knives

savik → saviik

knife {} {two knives}

On occasion, the consonant preceding the final vowel is also geminated, though exact phonological reasoning is unclear.^[18]

Ergative case[edit]

The ergative case is often referred to as the Relative Case in Iñupiaq sources.^[15] This case marks the subject of a transitive sentence or a genitive (possessive) noun phrase. For non-possessed noun phrases, the noun is marked only if it is a third person singular. The unmarked nouns leave ambiguity as to who/what is the subject and object. This can be resolved only through context.^[15][18] Possessed noun phrases and noun phrases expressing genitive are marked in ergative for all persons.^[18]

This suffix applies to all singular unpossessed nouns in the ergative case.

Please note the underlying /tə/ form in the first example.

Instrumental case[edit]

This case is also referred to as the modalis case. This case has a wide range of uses described below:

Since the ending is the same for both dual and plural, different stems are used. In all the examples the k is assimilated to an ŋ.

Allative case[edit]

The allative case is also referred to as the terminalis case. The uses of this case are described below:^[18]

*It is unclear as to whether this example is regular for the dual form or not.

Numerals[edit]

Iñupiaq numerals are base-20 with a sub-base of 5. The numbers 1 to 20 are:^[23]

The sub-base of five shows in the words for 5, tallimat, and 15, akimiaq, to which the numbers 1 to 3 are added to create the words for 7, 8, 16, 17 and 18, etc. (itchaksrat '6' being irregular). Apart from sisamat '4', numbers before a multiple of five are indicated with the subtractive element -utaiḷaq: quliŋŋuġutaiḷaq '9' from qulit '10', akimiaġutaiḷaq '14' from akimiaq '15', iñuiññaġutaiḷaq '19' from iñuiññaq '20'.^[24]

Scores are created with the element -kipiaq, and numbers between the scores are composed by adding 1 through 19 to these. Multiples of 400 are created with -agliaq and 8000's with -pak. Note that these words will vary between singular -q and plural -t, depending on the speaker and whether they are being used for counting or for modifying a noun.

The system continues through compounding suffixes to a maximum of iñuiññagliaqpakpiŋatchaq (20×400×8000³, ≈ 4 quadrillion), e.g.

There is also a decimal system for the hundreds and thousands, with the numerals qavluun for 100 and kavluutit for 1000, thus malġuk qavluun 200, malġuk kavluutit 2000, etc.^[25]

Etymology[edit]

The numeral five, tallimat, is derived from the word for hand/arm. The word for 10, qulit, is derived from the word for "top", meaning the ten digits on the top part of the body. The numeral for 15, akimiaq, means something like "it goes across", and the numeral for 20, iñuiññaq means something like "entire person" or "complete person", indicating the 20 digits of all extremities.^[24]

Verbal morphology[edit]

Again, Malimiutun Iñupiaq is used as a representative example in this section. The basic structure of the verb is [(verb) + (derivational suffix) + (inflectional suffix) + (enclitic)], although Lanz (2010) argues that this approach is insufficient since it "forces one to analyze ... optional ... suffixes".^[18] Every verb has an obligatory inflection for person, number, and mood (all marked by a single suffix), and can have other inflectional suffixes such as tense, aspect, modality, and various suffixes carrying adverbial functions.^[18]

Tense[edit]

Tense marking is always optional. The only explicitly marked tense is the future tense. Past and present tense cannot be marked and are always implied. All verbs can be marked through adverbs to show relative time (using words such as "yesterday" or "tomorrow"). If neither of these markings is present, the verb can imply a past, present, or future tense.^[18]

Aspect[edit]

Marking aspect is optional in Iñupiaq verbs. Both North Slope and Malimiut Iñupiaq have a perfective versus imperfective distinction in aspect, along with other distinctions such as: frequentative (-ataq; "to repeatedly verb"), habitual (-suu; "to always, habitually verb"), inchoative (-łhiñaaq; "about to verb"), and intentional (-saġuma; "intend to verb"). The aspect suffix can be found after the verb root and before or within the obligatory person-number-mood suffix.^[18]

Mood[edit]

Iñupiaq has the following moods: Indicative, Interrogative, Imperative (positive, negative), Coordinative, and Conditional.^[18][22] Participles are sometimes classified as a mood.^[18]

Indicative mood endings can be transitive or intransitive, as seen in the table below.

Syntax[edit]

Nearly all syntactic operations in the Malimiut dialect of Iñiupiaq—and Inuit languages and dialects in general—are carried out via morphological means.^[18]

The language aligns to an ergative-absolutive case system, which is mainly shown through nominal case markings and verb agreement (see above).^[18]

The basic word order is subject-object-verb. However, word order is flexible and both subject and/or object can be omitted. There is a tendency for the subject of a transitive verb (marked by the ergative case) to precede the object of the clause (marked by the absolutive case). There is likewise a tendency for the subject of an intransitive verb (marked by the absolutive case) to precede the verb. The subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a clause (both marked by the absolutive case) are usually found right before the verb. However, "this is [all] merely a tendency."^[18]

Iñupiaq grammar also includes morphological passive, antipassive, causative and applicative.

Noun incorporation[edit]

Noun incorporation is a common phenomenon in Malimiutun Iñupiaq. The first type of noun incorporation is lexical compounding. Within this subset of noun incorporation, the noun, which represents an instrument, location, or patient in relation to the verb, is attached to the front of the verb stem, creating a new intransitive verb. The second type is manipulation of case. It is argued whether this form of noun incorporation is present as noun incorporation in Iñupiaq, or "semantically transitive noun incorporation"—since with this kind of noun incorporation the verb remains transitive. The noun phrase subjects are incorporated not syntactically into the verb but rather as objects marked by the instrumental case. The third type of incorporation, manipulation of discourse structure, is supported by Mithun (1984) and argued against by Lanz (2010). See Lanz's paper for further discussion.^[18] The final type of incorporation is classificatory noun incorporation, whereby a "general [noun] is incorporated into the [verb], while a more specific [noun] narrows the scope".^[18] With this type of incorporation, the external noun can take on external modifiers and, like the other incorporations, the verb becomes intransitive. See Nominal Morphology (Instrumental Case, Usage of Instrumental table, row four) on this page for an example.

Switch-references[edit]

Switch-references occur in dependent clauses only with third person subjects. The verb must be marked as reflexive if the third person subject of the dependent clause matches the subject of the main clause (more specifically matrix clause).^[18] Compare:

Text sample[edit]

This is a sample of the Iñupiaq language of the Kivalina variety from Kivalina Reader, published in 1975.

Aaŋŋaayiña aniñiqsuq Qikiqtami. Aasii iñuguġuni. Tikiġaġmi Kivaliñiġmiḷu. Tuvaaqatiniguni Aivayuamik. Qulit atautchimik qitunġivḷutik. Itchaksrat iñuuvlutiŋ. Iḷaŋat Qitunġaisa taamna Qiñuġana.

This is the English translation, from the same source:

Aaŋŋaayiña was born in Shishmaref. He grew up in Point Hope and Kivalina. He marries Aivayuaq. They had eleven children. Six of them are alive. One of the children is Qiñuġana.

Vocabulary comparison[edit]

The comparison of various vocabulary in four different dialects: