Kalaallisut language

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"Greenlandic language" redirects here. For the extinct North-Germanic language, see Greenlandic Norse language.
Kalaallisut
Spoken in: Greenland, Denmark 
Region: North America
Total speakers: approximately 54,000
Language family: Eskimo-Aleut
 Inuit
  Kalaallisut 
Official status
Official language in: Greenland, Denmark
Regulated by: Oqaasileriffik ([1])
Language codes
ISO 639-1: kl
ISO 639-2: kal
ISO 639-3: kal
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Kalaallisut language (also called Western Greenlandic, Greenlandic Eskimo, or Greenlandic Inuktitut) is an Eskimo-Aleut language spoken by the Kalaallit of Greenland. It is closely related to the Inuit languages in Canada, such as Inuktitut. Kalaallisut is spoken by about 54,000 people, which is more than all the other Eskimo-Aleut languages combined. The northern dialect, Inuktun or Avanersuarmiutut, spoken around the city of Qaanaaq (Thule) is particularly closely related to Canadian Inuktitut. Other dialects are the dialect of eastern Greenland (Tunu) called Tunumiit oraasiat, and the dialect of Upernavik.

A bilingual sign in Danish and Kalaallisut; the lower part is in Kalaallisut.
A bilingual sign in Danish and Kalaallisut; the lower part is in Kalaallisut.

Contents

[edit] Phonology of Kalaallisut

The most extensive study of Kalaallisut phonology is Jørgen Rischel's "Topics in West Greenlandic Phonology" (1974)[1].

Three vowels: /i/, /u/ and /a/

Before a uvular consonant ([q] or [ʁ]) /i/ is realized allophonically as [e] or [ɛ] and /u/ as [o] or [ɔ]. This alternation is shown in the modern standard orthography by writing /i/ and /u/ as <e> and <o> respectively when occurring before uvulars (<q> and <r>).

Double vowels are pronounced as two moras, so they are phonologically a vowel sequence not a long vowel, they are also written as two vowels in the orthography. There is no stress phonemic or phonetic but heavy syllables (with double vowel or in front of a consonant cluster) sound stressed and some intonational patterns also sound like stress.

Consonants

Letters between // are phonemes and the following letter is the way it is spelled in the new standard Greenlandic orthography of 1973.

  Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular
Stops /p/ - p /t/ - t /k/ - k /q/ - q
Fricatives /v/ - v~f [2] /s/ - s /ɣ/ - g
Nasals /m/ - m /n/ - n /ŋ/ -  ng
Liquids /l/ - l ~ /ɬ/ -  ll /ʁ/ - r
Semivowel /j/ - j

Kalaallisut phonology distinguishes itself phonologically from the other Inuit languages by a series of assimilations. One of the most famous Inuktitut words, iglu (house), is illu in Kalaallisut, where the /gl/ consonant cluster of inuktitut is assimillated into an unvoiced lateral affricate. And for example the name Inuktitut, when translated into Kalaallisut, is Inuttut.

[edit] Grammatical features of Kalaallisut

The language, like its relatives, is highly polysynthetic and ergative. There are almost no compound words, but mostly derivations. Greenland has three main dialects: Avanersuaq (Northern Greenland), Tunu (East Greenland) and Kitaa (West Greenland).

Kalaallisut distinguishes two open word classes: nouns and verbs. Each category is subdivided by intransitive and transitive words. The language distinguishes four persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd reflexive), two numbers (singular, plural; no dual as in Inuktitut), eight moods (indicative, participial, imperative, optative, past subjunctive, future subjunctive, habitual subjunctive), ten cases (absolutive, ergative, equative, instrumental, locative, allative, ablative, prolative; for some selected nouns: nominative, accusative). Verbs carry bipersonal inflection for subject and object (distinguished by person and number). Transitive nouns carry possessive inflection.

[edit] Orthography

In contrast to Eskimo-Aleut languages in Canada, Kalaallisut is written with the Latin alphabet and not with the Inuktitut syllabary. A special character, Kra (ĸ), was used exclusively in Kalaallisut until the spelling reform of 1973 replaced it with the letter q. [3]

[edit] Further reading

  • Fortescue, M. D. (1990). From the writings of the Greenlanders = Kalaallit atuakkiaannit. [Fairbanks, Alaska]: University of Alaska Press. ISBN 0912006439
  • Sadock, J. M. (2003). A grammar of Kalaallisut: (West Greenlandic Inuttut). Languages of the world, 162. München: Lincom. ISBN 3895862347

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Kalaallisut language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Jørgen Rischel, 1974, Topics in West Greenlandic Phonology. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.
  2. ^ <f> is the way of writing the devoiced /vv/ geminate.
  3. ^ http://www.evertype.com/alphabets/greenlandic.pdf