Tunumiisut

Tunumiisut
East Greenlandic
Native toEast Greenland
EthnicityTunumiit
Native speakers
(3,000–3,500 cited 1995)[1]
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologtunu1234
IETFkl-tunumiit
Map of the Inuit languages
East Greenlandic is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Tunumiisut (lit. 'language of the Tunumiit'), also known as East Greenlandic (Danish: østgrønlandsk), is the language of the Tunumiit in East Greenland. It is generally categorised as a dialect of Greenlandic, but verges on being a distinct language.[2][3] The largest town where it is the primary language is Tasiilaq on Ammassalik Island, with the island's name being derived from the West Greenlandic name of the town.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Back
Close i iː u uː
Open a aː

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular
plain lateral
Nasal m n ŋ ɴ
Plosive/
Affricate 		p t (t͡ɕ) k q
Fricative v s ɣ ʁ
Approximant l j

The following sounds may also occur as geminated; /pː, tː, kː, qː, sː, mː, nː, ŋː/.

  • /v/ may be heard as either [v], [β], [w] or [ɥ].
  • /l/ may also be heard as [d] in initial positions.
  • Sounds /s, sː/ may also be heard as palatalized sounds [ɕ, t͡ɕ] when in palatal positions.
  • Sounds /k/ and /q/ may also have intervocalic allophones as [x, ɣ] and [χ, ʁ].
  • Nasals /ŋ, ɴ/ can be heard as nasalized fricatives [ɣ̃, ʁ̃] in various environments.[3]

References

  1. ^ 3,000 in Greenland, and perhaps 20% more in Denmark. Greenlandic at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Nicole Tersis, in Variations on polysynthesis: the Eskaleut languages Ch. 4
  3. ^ a b Mennecier, Philippe (1995). Le tunumiisut, dialecte inuit du Groenland oriental: description et analyse. Collection linguistique, 78 (in French). Société de linguistique de Paris, Peeters Publishers.


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