Inuit languages

Inuit languages are a chain of closely related languages spoken by Inuit communities from Alaska across Arctic Canada to Greenland. They belong to the Eskimo–Aleut language family and are often grouped as dialects of Inuktut.

Polysynthetic language: A language type in which words can combine many morphemes to express meanings conveyed by whole sentences elsewhere. Inuit languages build long words from roots and grammatical endings.
Agglutinative language: A language in which grammatical meanings are commonly expressed by adding distinct affixes to a word stem. Inuit words often accumulate suffixes in a largely orderly sequence.
Thule people: An Arctic culture that spread eastward from Alaska and became ancestral to historic Inuit populations across much of the Arctic. Their eastward expansion helped carry ancestral Inuit speech across Arctic Canada and Greenland.
Inuktitut syllabics: A writing system used for several Inuit language varieties in Canada, based on syllabic signs. It is a prominent way of writing many eastern Canadian varieties.
Inuit language classification: The grouping and naming of related Inuit speech varieties as languages, dialects, or branches. The chain's gradual variation makes classification depend partly on linguistic and community choices.
Inuktut: A collective name used for Inuit language varieties, especially in Canada. It groups Canadian varieties within the wider Inuit language chain.
Morpheme: The smallest unit of language that carries meaning or grammatical function. Morphemes combine to form the complex words characteristic of Inuit languages.
Proto-Eskimo: A reconstructed ancestral language from which the Eskimo languages developed. It represents an earlier linguistic stage behind the Inuit branch.
Inuktitut Latin alphabet: A Latin-based orthography used to write Inuktitut and other Inuit language varieties. It provides an alternative to syllabics in Canadian Inuit writing.
Language endangerment: The process by which a language loses speakers and risks ceasing to be transmitted. Some Inuit varieties face unequal pressures on everyday use and transmission.

Linked from 6 pages