Inupiaq Language

Alaskan Inupiaq can be divided into two major dialect groups, each of which can be further subdivided into two dialects. The first group, North Alaskan Inupiaq is spoken from Unalakleet at its southernmost boundary, north along the head of Norton Sound, through the Kobuk River valley, around Kotzebue Sound and the northern shore of the Seward Peninsula and north along the Arctic coast, including the inland village of Anaktuvuk Pass, and into the Mackenzie River delta region of Northwest Canada. Within North Alaskan Inupiaq, we can identify a North Slope dialect spoken from Kivalina north and east along the Arctic coast into Canada (see also 3.1), and a Malimiut dialect spoken south of Kivalina predominantly in the Kobuk River area, Kotzebue Sound, and the head of the Norton Sound, excluding most of the Seward Peninsula. The dialect of Anaktuvuk Pass, home of the Nunamiut Eskimos, represents in several respects a dialect transitional between Malimiut and North Slope, with individual speakers tending in one direction or the other. The division between these two dialects is based principally on differing degrees of consonant assimilation and palatalization.

While all forms of North Alaskan Inupiaq have some degree of consonant palatalization, it is the lack of this feature, together with the development of an elaborate “consonant weakening” system, which characterizes the other major dialect group, Seward Peninsula Inupiaq, in phonological terms. Consonant weakening affects alternate syllables, causing lenition or deletion, and this syllable-skipping mechanism, rather than its result, is reminiscent of prosodic processes of Alaskan Yupik, a probable substratum. Seward Peninsula Inupiaq comprises the Bering Strait and Qawiaraq dialects: the Bering Strait variety is found in the western portion of the Seward Peninsula, including King Island and the Diomedes. The southern shore of the peninsula is Qawiaraq-speaking, with this dialect extending along Norton Sound to Shaktoolik and Unalakleet, sharing these two villages with Malimiut Inupiaq as well as the Unaliq dialect of Central Yupik. (Unaliq was once spoken well north of its present boundary, along the shore of Norton Sound to Cape Nome.)

As with most other Alaskan native languages, the future of Inupiaq appears uncertain at this point in history. A complex set of circumstances, owing to the introduction of foreign culture and language into the Arctic over the past century, threatens the continued use of Inupiaq as a primary source of communication in areas of Alaska where it is traditionally spoken. Following official discouragement of the language in the schools over past decades, younger generations speak ever more English and less Inupiaq, a trend which would result in the eventual replacement of Inupiaq by English. Most areas have started Eskimo language teaching programs in local schools, but it is unclear what effect such efforts will have on future maintenance - or revival, where necessary - of spoken Inupiaq in Alaska. By contrast, throughout all of Greenland and much of eastern Canada, with the apparent exception of Labrador, the language remains in full vigor.

Excerpts from the PREFACE of ALASKA NATIVE LANGUAGE CENTER RESEARCH PAPERS, NUMBER 6, Phonological Issues in North Alaskan Inupiaq by Lawrence D. Kaplan, pp 7-11. © 1981 by Alaska Native Language Center. ISBN 0-933769-36-9 *still need to request permission to use*