Tunumiisut facts for kids
Quick facts for kids East Greenlandic |
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| Tunumiisut | |
| Native to | East Greenland |
| Ethnicity | Tunumiit |
| Native speakers | (3,000–3,500 cited 1995) |
| Language family |
Eskimo–Aleut
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| Early forms: |
Proto-Eskimo–Aleut
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Map of the Inuit languages; Tunumiisut is grey.
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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. 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.
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Tunumiisut Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.