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KALAALLISUT LANGUAGE
The Kalaallisut language (also called Western Greenlandic, Greenlandic Eskimo, or Greenlandic Inuktitut) is an Eskimo-Aleut language spoken in Greenland. It is closely related to some 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, spoken around the city of Qaanaaq (Thule) is more closely related to Canadian Inuktitut.
Phonology of Kalaallisut
Three vowels: /i/, /u/ and /a/
Before an uvular consonant ([q] or [R]) /i/ is realized allophonically as [e] or [ɛ] and /u/ as [o] or [ɔ] .
Double vowels are pronounced as two mora, 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 fornt of a consonant cluster) sound stressed and some intonational patterns also sound like stress.
Consonants
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Labial |
Alveolar |
Palatal |
Velar |
Uvular |
| Stops |
p |
t |
|
k |
q |
| Fricatives |
v |
s |
|
g |
|
| Nasals |
m |
n |
|
ŋ |
|
| Liquids |
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l / ɬ |
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|
R |
| Semivowel |
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j |
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Kalaallisut phonology distinguishes it self 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.
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: North, West and East Greenlandic; West Greenlandic, the largest dialect, is called Kalaallisut.
Kalaallisut distinguishes two open word classes: nouns and verbs. Each category is subdivided by intransitive and transitive words. The languages 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, perlative; for some selected nouns: nominative, accusative). Verbs carry bipersonal inflection for subject and object (distinguished by person and number). Transitive nouns carry possessive inflection.
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 a spelling reform replaced it with the letter q. [citation needed]
External links
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