Eskimo languages

The Eskimo languages or Eskimo are, in addition to Aleut, a subfamily of the Eskimo-Aleut languages ​​spoken by the Eskimos in northeast Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland.

In general, the Eskimo languages ​​are divided into two large groups: Yupik or Western Eskimo in East Alaska, on some islands of the Bering Strait and in Northeast Asia, and Inuit or Eastern Eskimo from northern Alaska to East Greenland.

• Eskimo
  • Inuit or Inupiaq-Inuktitut
    • Greenlandic or Kalaallisut (Greenland, 58,000)
    • Inuktitut (Eastern Canada, 40,000)
    • Inuinnaqtun (Western Canada, 14,000)
    • Inupiaq (Northern Alaska, 10,000)
  • Yupik
    • Alaska Yupik
      • Central Alaska Yupik (17,000)
        dialects: General Central Yupik including Yukon-Kuskokwim, Egegik, Hooper-Bay-Chevak, Nunivak, Norton Sound
      • Pacific Gulf Yupik ( Alutiiq , Suk, Sugpiaq) (100)
        Dialects: Chugach, Koniag
    • Siberian Yupik or Yuit
      • Chaplino-Naukan
        • Chaplino (Central Siberian Yupik) (1,100)
          Dialects: Chaplinski, St Lawrence Isld.
        • Naukan (Naukanski) (75)
      • Sirenik
        • Sirenik (Sirenikski) † extinct since 1997

While the distinction between Western Eskimo and Eastern Eskimo has structural reasons, the subdivision into the various dialect groups is not to be understood as a strict distinction between different languages, but is often based on the area of ​​occurrence and the local names.

Eskimo and the Yupik languages ​​each form a dialect continuum .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elke Nowak: Introduction to Inuktitut (PDF; 603 kB), accessed on December 23, 2015
2. ↑ Elke Nowak: Introduction to Inuktitut (PDF; 603 kB), accessed on December 23, 2015