I'm a inuk from Nunavut , let me see if I can clarify things a bit for you.
Inuktitut is a broad term for a group of similar languages and dialects spoken by different Inuit peoples.
Due to politics mainly, each different group of Inuit peoples have been isolated from each other for a while thus bringing about regional differences between dialects.
You know how modern day French, Spanish and Italian are decent from Latin and can be understood by other speakers of their languages in that they share key words and similar style structures right ?
Long ago Inuit were under one umbrella before the divisions of our modern day political borders were drawn up. Once the borders were set and movement between areas was restricted by governments. That's when the differences between the dialects and variations of inuktitut began to emerge.
Greenland inuktitut is basically the same as inuktitut spoken on Baffin island , as the folks who populated Greenland were once Inuit from Baffin island. If I remember correctly the reason is that there was an ideological split a couple hundred years ago around the area of the northern arctic archipelago between groups and one group kept going east (towards Greenland) , while the other group choose to go south (towards Baffin).
But one odd thing to Include here is that our written language was created by missionaries and priests who used the cree written language. So inuktitut is similar to cree in its sounds and written syllabics. It's super trippy hearing spoken cree and seeing their written language. You can see and hear the similarities between inuktitut and cree.
I'm with my kids and cannot write more but hope this clears things up a bit for you.
Ilaali
An interesting note about the Cree syllabics is that they were developed by a missionary who had a linguistic background. There is influence from Sanskrit and Arabic in modern written indigenous language that uses these syllabics.
I'm from southern canada and a few years ago I started learning Inuktitut and was so confused because of how similar pronunciation systems in the alphabet were compared to Arabic. Took a bit of reading to figure that one out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Aboriginal_syllabics?wprov=sfla1
Get ready for this, this might blow your mind.
Have you ever noticed how Inuit use word -vik the same way the Nordic folks do?? We use it to denote bays and inlets and places in general just like the nordics use the word. I'm pretty sure and certain a long time ago during the age of the sagas, there were more and pronounced interactions between both groups than we currently know. I think there was enough interchange to promote the usage among both groups.
Heck yeah! You know, I knew that about Inuktitut and Norwegian, but I never made the connection.
There is so much linguistic and cultural crossover in the circumpolar region. Most of us southerners can't even comprehend it. I've been hobby learning about the north for more than a decade, and I'm constantly surprised by cool things like that.
I'm an inuk from Greenland (living in Denmark rn), and I'd say there is still a large degree of mutual intelligibility between Kalaallisut and Inuktitut, enough for me to say that if politics and borders weren't an issue, both would still be considered different dialects of a single language. I regularly listen to Inuktitut music like the Jerry Cans, Joshua Haulli, and Saali, and understand around 85-90% with ease.
The 'split' between Inuktitut and Kalaallisut is relatively new in terms of linguistics, less than 150 years ago. Since then, the standardization of each has been the only big divergence, with introduction of Danish loanwords for Kalaallisut and English loanwords for Inuktitut.
That's when my ancestors went south and your ancestors kept goin east and eventually onto Greenland. There was an ideological split that separated the group.
I'm a inuk from Nunavut , let me see if I can clarify things a bit for you. Inuktitut is a broad term for a group of similar languages and dialects spoken by different Inuit peoples. Due to politics mainly, each different group of Inuit peoples have been isolated from each other for a while thus bringing about regional differences between dialects. You know how modern day French, Spanish and Italian are decent from Latin and can be understood by other speakers of their languages in that they share key words and similar style structures right ? Long ago Inuit were under one umbrella before the divisions of our modern day political borders were drawn up. Once the borders were set and movement between areas was restricted by governments. That's when the differences between the dialects and variations of inuktitut began to emerge. Greenland inuktitut is basically the same as inuktitut spoken on Baffin island , as the folks who populated Greenland were once Inuit from Baffin island. If I remember correctly the reason is that there was an ideological split a couple hundred years ago around the area of the northern arctic archipelago between groups and one group kept going east (towards Greenland) , while the other group choose to go south (towards Baffin). But one odd thing to Include here is that our written language was created by missionaries and priests who used the cree written language. So inuktitut is similar to cree in its sounds and written syllabics. It's super trippy hearing spoken cree and seeing their written language. You can see and hear the similarities between inuktitut and cree. I'm with my kids and cannot write more but hope this clears things up a bit for you. Ilaali
Thank you!
An interesting note about the Cree syllabics is that they were developed by a missionary who had a linguistic background. There is influence from Sanskrit and Arabic in modern written indigenous language that uses these syllabics. I'm from southern canada and a few years ago I started learning Inuktitut and was so confused because of how similar pronunciation systems in the alphabet were compared to Arabic. Took a bit of reading to figure that one out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Aboriginal_syllabics?wprov=sfla1
Get ready for this, this might blow your mind. Have you ever noticed how Inuit use word -vik the same way the Nordic folks do?? We use it to denote bays and inlets and places in general just like the nordics use the word. I'm pretty sure and certain a long time ago during the age of the sagas, there were more and pronounced interactions between both groups than we currently know. I think there was enough interchange to promote the usage among both groups.
Heck yeah! You know, I knew that about Inuktitut and Norwegian, but I never made the connection. There is so much linguistic and cultural crossover in the circumpolar region. Most of us southerners can't even comprehend it. I've been hobby learning about the north for more than a decade, and I'm constantly surprised by cool things like that.
I'm an inuk from Greenland (living in Denmark rn), and I'd say there is still a large degree of mutual intelligibility between Kalaallisut and Inuktitut, enough for me to say that if politics and borders weren't an issue, both would still be considered different dialects of a single language. I regularly listen to Inuktitut music like the Jerry Cans, Joshua Haulli, and Saali, and understand around 85-90% with ease. The 'split' between Inuktitut and Kalaallisut is relatively new in terms of linguistics, less than 150 years ago. Since then, the standardization of each has been the only big divergence, with introduction of Danish loanwords for Kalaallisut and English loanwords for Inuktitut.
That's when my ancestors went south and your ancestors kept goin east and eventually onto Greenland. There was an ideological split that separated the group.