An Inuit language spoken across the Canadian Arctic — co-official in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, written in both Latin and Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.
Where it’s spoken
Inuktitut is the major Inuit language of Canada, spoken across Nunavut, the Northwest Territories’ Inuvialuit Settlement Region, northern Quebec (Nunavik), and northern Labrador (Nunatsiavut). About 35,000 people speak it, with Nunavut having the highest concentration. It is part of the broader Inuit dialect continuum that stretches from Alaska through Canada to Greenland.
What it sounds like
Inuktitut is famous for being polysynthetic — single “words” can encode the content of entire English sentences through extensive suffixation. It has three vowels (a, i, u) and a complex consonant system with uvular fricatives and laterals. The language uses gemination and vowel length distinctively.
How it’s written
Inuktitut is written in two systems: Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (an abugida-like script adapted from the Cree syllabary developed by James Evans in 1840), and a Latin orthography. The two coexist depending on region — syllabics dominate in Nunavut and Nunavik.
History
Anglican missionary Edmund Peck adapted the Cree syllabics for Inuktitut in the 1870s. Nunavut’s establishment in 1999 gave Inuktitut formal status, though Inuit communities have actively used it for centuries.
Find more languages by letter
Inuktitut starts with I and ends with T. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Inuktitut":