Uummarmiutun

=Introduction=

Uummarmiutun, or commonly known as Canadian Iñupiatun, is a dialect of Iñupiatun and Inuvialuktun spoken in Aklavik and Inuvik of the Northwest Territories, Canada, as well as one of seventeen core sub-languages spoken by Inuit across the Arctic. It is part of the Inuvialuktun language with neighboring Sallirmiut and Kangiryuarmiutun with very similar linguistic features.

This dialect closely resembles the one spoken by the Inupiat of Alaska and has become established in Canada due to migration from Alaska in the 1910s. This migration aimed to reclaim the Siglit Inuit lands that were left deserted during the severe disease outbreaks of the preceding century.

Inuvik and Aklavik, being ethnically diverse communities where English serves as the predominant means of communication, witness limited usage of Uummarmiutun among the younger population. Consequently, the language faces a significant threat of endangerment.

=Background=

Uummarmiutun, spoken in Canada, is associated with the Uummarmiut ethnic group. It belongs to the Eskaleut language family, specifically categorized under Eskaleut, Inuit, and Iñupiaq or Inuvialuktun. The language does not have a designated ISO 639-3 code, and it is not listed in Glottolog. Its historical roots can be traced back to early forms such as Proto-Eskaleut, Proto-Eskimoan, and Proto-Inuit.

=Phonology=

Uummartmiutun encompasses a total of thirty-one phonemes, featuring six vowels—three short (/a, i, u/) and three long (/aː, iː, uː/), along with five diphthongs (/ai, ui, iu, ua, ia/). The remaining phonemes comprise a range of consonants: /p, t, k, g, q, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, f, v, ʁ, h, t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ, j, r, l, ɫ, j/.

=History=

Of any other Inuit languages, Uummarmiutun exhibited the longest time of development to its modern form. In terms of the formation, the language was formed in Inland Alaska around 700 to 600 years ago as Nunamiut and Kopagmiut (Uummarmiut in Alaska) expanded over to the interior and dinstiguished themselves from Tagiugmiut. However, the language was not fully developed into its modern forms until 1900s when the Uummarmiut migrated from Alaska to Canada from the spreading diseases, when it was then incorporated into modern Inuvialuktun with Sallirmiut and Kangiryuarmiut.

As it was differentiated from Tagiugmiutun and its subdialect of Anaktuvuk Pass dialect fairly recently, around a century ago, it is not clear linguistically rather Uummarmiutun is a separate dialect. However, as the political division strengthens, the Alaskan Anaktuvuk Pass Dialect and Canadian Uummarmiutun differed from one another further and further with accelerations. Currently, Uummarmiutun is more associated and influenced with other Canadian Inuvialuktun languages like Sallirmiut than its Alaskan counterparts.

=Dialects=

Uummarmiutun is not subdivided into any subdialects as it was traditionally considered as a subdialect of Tagiugmiutun, branched out from Anaktuvuk Pass Subdialect (Nunamiutun).

=Ethnic Groups= Of around 120 ethnic subgroups of Inuit, a single subgroup in the North Slope traditionally spoke Uummarmiutun: Uummarmiut (originally known as Kopagmiut in Alaska)

=Orthography= Though with distinctions and differences within subdialects, Uummarmiutun uses Latin Alphabets primarily with distinctions.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" ! A a || Ch ch || F f || G g || H h || Dj dj || I i || K k || L l || Ł ł || M m ! N n || Ñ ñ || Ng ng || P p || Q q || R r || R̂ r̂ || T t || U u || V v || Y y
 * + Uummarmiutun Alphabet