Inuit phonology

Ranges of West Greenlandic monophthongs on a vowel chart. Adapted from Fortescue (1990:317).

Almost all dialects of Inuktitut have three vowel qualities and make a phonemic distinction between short and long vowels. In Inuujingajut (the standard alphabet of Nunavut) long vowels are written as a double vowel.

In western Alaska, Qawiaraq and to some degree the Malimiutun variant of Inupiatun retains an additional vowel /ə/ which was present in proto-Inuit and is still present in Yupik, but which has become /i/ or sometimes /a/ in all other dialects. Thus, the common Inuktitut word for water – imiq – is emeq (/əməq/) in Qawiaraq.[1]

Furthermore, many diphthongs in the Alaskan dialects have merged, suggesting the beginnings of a new more complex vowel scheme with more than three distinct vowels. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in the Kobuk area, where the diphthongs /ua/ and /au/ are now both pronounced [ɔ]. Other diphthongs are also affected.

In contrast to the larger number of vowel contrasts in Alaskan dialects, in the dialect of northwest Greenland (particularly Upernavik), the phoneme /u/ has been replaced by /i/ in many contexts.

Otherwise, the three-vowel scheme described above holds for all of the Inuktitut dialects.

West Greenlandic vowels have a very wide range of allophones:

• /a/ varies between [e̞], [ɛ], [æ], [a̠], [ä] and [ɑ̟]. The last allophone appears before and especially between uvulars.[2]
• /i/ varies between [i], [ɪ̟], [e̠], [e̽] and [ə]. The last allophone appears before and especially between uvulars.[2]
• /u/ varies between [u̟], [u], [ʊ̠], [o] and [o̞]. The last allophone appears before and especially between uvulars.[2]

The Nunavut dialects of Inuktitut have fifteen distinct consonants, though some have more.

Notes:

• /ʂ/ and /ʐ/ appear only in Inupiatun.
• /ɟ/ appears only in Natsilingmiutut. Everywhere else it has merged with /j/; it is not written with a separate letter.
• /ɡ/ is realized as voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in Siglitun. In other dialects, this realization may also be found between vowels or vowels and approximants.
• /ʁ/ assimilates to preceding nasal consonants by being realized as a uvular nasal [ɴ]. It is written ⟨r⟩ in Inuujingajut orthography.

Primary stress is said to fall on the last syllable of each word.[3]

In Inuktitut, intonation is important in distinguishing some words – particularly interrogatives – but it is not generally marked in writing. There are some minimal pairs in Inuktitut where only pitch distinguishes between two different words, but they are rare enough that context usually disambiguates them in writing. One common case, however, is suva. A high pitch on the first syllable followed by a falling pitch on the second syllable means "What did you say?" A middle pitch on the first syllable followed by a rising pitch on the second means "What did he do?"

In general, Inuktitut uses intonation to mark questions in much the way English does. When an interrogative pronoun is used, pitch falls at the end of a question. When there is no interrogative pronoun, pitch rises on the last syllable.

Inuktitut speakers tend to lengthen vowels with a rising intonation. So, a rising tone is sometimes indicated indirectly by writing a double vowel:

An Inuktitut syllable cannot contain more than one segment in the onset or coda. Thus consonant clusters like /st/ or /pl/ that might arise from morphemes being joined together are deleted. There are also some restrictions on final consonants, where only voiceless stops (/p t k q/) can occur unless consonant sandhi has occurred.

Although two-segment consonant clusters occur when morphemes are joined together, three-segment clusters are consistently simplified. Additional constraints on two-segment clusters divide consonants into three manner of articulation groups:

Clusters must be of the same manner of articulation so that, e.g. /tp/, /vl/, and /mŋ/ are permitted, but */nt/, */qɡ/, and */lŋ/ are not. Where the morphology of Inuktitut places such incompatible consonants together, they are either replaced by a geminated consonant – in effect, total assimilation – or as a single consonant that takes its manner of articulation from one segment, and its place of articulation from the other. The process of eliminating three-segment clusters is similar with one of them disappearing. As a general rule, assimilation in Inuktitut is regressive – the first consonant takes its manner of articulation from the second consonant. But this varies amongst different dialects; the West Greenland dialect in particular tends to use progressive assimilation – the second consonant takes the manner of articulation from the first.

This limitation on consonant clusters is not quite universal across Inuit areas. One of the distinguishing features of western Alaskan dialects like Qawiaraq and Malimiutun is that nasal consonants can appear after consonants with other manners of articulation (this was a feature of Proto-Inuit as well as modern Yupik languages). Some examples include the Malimiut word qipmiq ('dog'; qimmiq in Inupiatun) and the Qawiaraq word iqniq ('fire'; inniq in other Inuktitut dialects).

Otherwise, different dialects have more phonotactic restrictions. In all forms of Inuktitut, /qk/ is impossible. In Inupiatun, Siglitun, and Inuinnaqtun (the far western dialects), all other consonant pairs are possible. Moving further east, the general rule is that more and more double consonants become geminated consonants. Determining which double consonants are assimilated depends on the place of articulation of the first consonant in the pair:

In the Aivilik dialect, North and South Baffin, and all dialects spoken further south and east, all double consonants starting with an alveolar consonant are geminated:

In the North and South Baffin dialects, as well as the dialects to the south and east of Baffin Island, double consonants starting with a labial consonant are also geminated. E.g. North Baffin takagakku ('because I see her') vs. Aivilingmiutut takugapku

In South Baffin, Nunavik, Greenland and Labrador, double consonants starting with a velar consonant are also geminated:

In addition, some dialects of Inuktitut pronounce [bl] ([vl] in Inupiatun) in place of the geminated lateral approximant /ll/. The phonological status of this distinction is uncertain – some dialects have both [bl] and [ll]. This feature is generally characteristic of western and central dialects as opposed to eastern ones.

Note 1 qitilliK, kulluK, kulloq: In the Nunatsiavummiutut alphabet, a capital K indicates the same uvular stop as q in the Inupiatun, Inuinnaqtun, Kalaallisut and Nunavut alphabets. Furthermore, o in the Kalaallisut alphabet represents the same phoneme as u in the alphabets used for other varieties of Inuktitut. Contrasts between alphabets are described below.

Double consonants where the second consonant is /s/ undergo more complex changes across dialects. In some cases assimilation is progressive (from the first consonant to the second), in others regressive, and in still others double consonants are neutralised into a single form.

• Greenlandic phonology
• Inuit grammar

• Inuktitut Linguistics for Technocrats, Mick Mallon.
• Nunavut Living Dictionary
• Interactive IñupiaQ Dictionary
• Oqaasileriffik Language database