Inupiaq language
Encyclopedia
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.
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'.
Along with the Alaskan and Siberian Yupik, the Inupiat eventually adopted the written system based on Roman orthography (Qaliujaaqpait) that Moravian missionaries first developed in Greenland
and Labrador
. Independently of missionaries from the south, the Alaskans also developed a system of hieroglyphics, 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 writing system based on the Roman alphabet. 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.
extra letters for Alaskan dialectic usage:
This is the English translation, from the same source:
Inuit language
The Inuit language is traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and to some extent in the subarctic in Labrador. The related Yupik languages are spoken in western and southern Alaska and Russian Far East, particularly the Diomede Islands, but is severely endangered in Russia today and...
, spoken in northern and northwestern Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. 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 PeninsulaSeward PeninsulaThe Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi Sea, and Kotzebue Sound, just below the Arctic Circle...
Iñupiaq, consisting of:- Bering StraitBering StraitThe Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
: spoken on King IslandKing Island, AlaskaKing Island is an island in the Bering Sea, west of Alaska. It is about west of Cape Douglas and is south of Wales, Alaska....
and the Diomede IslandsDiomede IslandsThe Diomede Islands , also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands , consist of two rocky, tuya-like islands:* The U.S. island of Little Diomede or, in its native language, Ignaluk , and* The Russian island of Big Diomede , also known as Imaqliq,...
and in the villages north of Nome, AlaskaNome, AlaskaNome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
; subdialects:- DiomedeDiomede IslandsThe Diomede Islands , also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands , consist of two rocky, tuya-like islands:* The U.S. island of Little Diomede or, in its native language, Ignaluk , and* The Russian island of Big Diomede , also known as Imaqliq,...
- WalesWales, AlaskaWales is a town in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 152. It is the westernmost town on the American mainland.-Geography:...
- King Island
- Diomede
- Qawiaraq: spoken in TellerTeller, AlaskaTeller is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 268. According to a 2009 estimate, the population had increased by exactly one person....
, near the original village of Qawiaraq, and in the villages south of NomeNome, AlaskaNome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
as far as UnalakleetUnalakleet, AlaskaUnalakleet is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, in the western part of the state. At the 2000 census the population was 747. Unalakleet is known in the region and around Alaska for its salmon and king crab harvests; the residents rely heavily on caribou, ptarmigan, oogruk , and...
; subdialects:- Teller
- Fish RiverFish River (Alaska)The Fish River is a 47 mi. long river arising in the Bendeleben Mountains of the U.S. state of Alaska and flowing south to Golovnin Lagoon, then emptying into Golovnin Bay, Norton Sound, and the Bering Sea....
- Bering Strait
- Northern Alaskan Iñupiaq: spoken south of Kivalina and around KotzebueKotzebue, AlaskaAs of the census of 2000, there were 3,082 people, 889 households, and 656 families residing in the city. The population density was 114.1 people per square mile . There were 1,007 housing units at an average density of 37.3 per square mile...
, along the Kobuk RiverKobuk RiverThe Kobuk River is a river located in the Arctic region of northwestern Alaska in the United States. It is approximately long...
and at the head of the Norton SoundNorton SoundNorton Sound is an inlet of the Bering Sea on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, south of the Seward Peninsula. It is about 240 km long and 200 km wide. The Yukon River delta forms a portion of the south shore and water from the Yukon influences this body of water...
, in KoyukKoyuk, AlaskaKoyuk is a city in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 297 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Koyuk is located at...
and UnalakleetUnalakleet, AlaskaUnalakleet is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States, in the western part of the state. At the 2000 census the population was 747. Unalakleet is known in the region and around Alaska for its salmon and king crab harvests; the residents rely heavily on caribou, ptarmigan, oogruk , and...
; consisting of:- Malimiutun, consisting of subdialects:
- Kobuk
- Kotzebue
- North SlopeAlaska North SlopeThe Alaska North Slope is the region of the U.S. state of Alaska located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi Sea being on the western side of Point Barrow, and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern.The region contains the...
: spoken along the Arctic coast as far south as KivalinaKivalina, AlaskaKivalina is a city in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 377.-History:...
; subdialects:- Common North Slope
- Point Barrow
- Anaktuvuk PassAnaktuvuk PassThe Anaktuvuk Pass is a mountain pass located in Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in North Slope Borough in northern Alaska...
(Nunamiut) - UummarmiutunUummarmiutunUummarmiutun or Canadian Iñupiaq is the variant of Iñupiaq spoken by the Uummarmiut, part of the Inuvialuit, who live mainly in the communities of Inuvik and Aklavik in the Northwest Territories of Canada....
: spoken in the Mackenzie DeltaMackenzie RiverThe Mackenzie River is the largest river system in Canada. It flows through a vast, isolated region of forest and tundra entirely within the country's Northwest Territories, although its many tributaries reach into four other Canadian provinces and territories...
(Aklavik and Inuvik) in the Northwest Territories, Canada
- Malimiutun, consisting of subdialects:
Linguistics
The Inupiaq dialects, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, represent a particular type of agglutinative languageAgglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
called a polysynthetic language
Polysynthetic language
In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes. Whereas isolating languages have a low morpheme-to-word ratio, polysynthetic languages have extremely high morpheme-to-word ratios.Not all languages can be...
: 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
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
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
Voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of...
'll' in Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
'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 written system based on Roman orthography (Qaliujaaqpait) that Moravian missionaries first developed in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
and Labrador
Labrador
Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...
. Independently of missionaries from the south, the Alaskans also developed a system of hieroglyphics, which, however, died with its creators.
In 1946, Roy Ahmaogak, an Inupiaq Presbyterian minister from Barrow
Barrow, Alaska
Barrow is the largest city of the North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is one of the northernmost cities in the world and is the northernmost city in the United States of America, with nearby Point Barrow being the nation's northernmost point. Barrow's population was 4,212 at the...
, worked with Eugene Nida
Eugene Nida
Eugene A. Nida was the developer of the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation theory.- Life :Nida was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on November 11, 1914...
, a member of the Summer Institute of Linguistics
SIL International
SIL International is a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages,...
, to develop the current Iñupiaq writing system based on the Roman alphabet. 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 A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... |
Ch CH -Business:* Bemidji Airlines IATA code* Carolina Herrera, a fashion designer based in New York.-Entertainment and sports:* Channel * College Humor.com, a comedy website... |
G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... |
Ġ G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... |
H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... |
I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... |
K K K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA.... |
L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... |
Ḷ L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... |
Ł | Ł̣ Ł̣ is a letter of the Latin alphabet, derived from Ł̣ with a diacritical dot below. It is or was used in some languages to represent various sounds.... |
M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... |
N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... |
Ñ Ñ Ñ is a letter of the modern Latin alphabet, formed by an N with a diacritical tilde. It is used in the Spanish alphabet, Galician alphabet, Asturian alphabet, Basque alphabet, Aragonese old alphabet , Filipino alphabet, Chamorro alphabet and the Guarani alphabet, where it represents... |
Ŋ | P P P is the sixteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Usage:In English and most other European languages, P is a voiceless bilabial plosive. Both initial and final Ps can be combined with many other discrete consonants in English words... |
Q Q Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones... |
R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... |
S S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... |
Sr Sr Sr, Sr. or sr as an abbreviation may refer to:* Senior, a suffix to a person's name, usually male* Sister, a prefix to a religious sister's name* Strontium, the 38th element on the periodic table* Serbian language... |
T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... |
U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... |
V V V is the twenty-second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Letter:The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y. See F for details.... |
Y Y Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English.-Name:In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing , which was not a native sound... |
| 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 A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... |
Ch CH -Business:* Bemidji Airlines IATA code* Carolina Herrera, a fashion designer based in New York.-Entertainment and sports:* Channel * College Humor.com, a comedy website... |
F F F is the sixth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The origin of ⟨f⟩ is the Semitic letter vâv that represented a sound like or . Graphically, it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club... |
G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... |
H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... |
Dj | I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... |
K K K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA.... |
L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... |
Ł | M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... |
N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... |
Ñ Ñ Ñ is a letter of the modern Latin alphabet, formed by an N with a diacritical tilde. It is used in the Spanish alphabet, Galician alphabet, Asturian alphabet, Basque alphabet, Aragonese old alphabet , Filipino alphabet, Chamorro alphabet and the Guarani alphabet, where it represents... |
Ng Ng Ng is a Cantonese and Hakka transliteration of the Chinese surnames 吳/吴 and 伍 , and Hokkien and Teochew transliteration of the Chinese surname 黃 . It is pronounced , and 伍 means "five." It is sometimes romanized as Ang, Eng, Ing and Ong in the United States and Ung in Australia... |
P P P is the sixteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Usage:In English and most other European languages, P is a voiceless bilabial plosive. Both initial and final Ps can be combined with many other discrete consonants in English words... |
Q Q Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones... |
R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... |
Ȓ R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... |
T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... |
U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... |
V V V is the twenty-second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Letter:The letter V comes from the Semitic letter Waw, as do the modern letters F, U, W, and Y. See F for details.... |
Y Y Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English.-Name:In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing , which was not a native sound... |
| 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 |
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 Orthography), Northern Alaskan Vowels, Seward Peninsula Consonants, Seward Peninsula Vowels