Tagiugmiutun

=Introduction=

Tagiugmiutun, or commonly known as North Slope Iñupiatun, is a dialect of Iñupiatun spoken in the North Slope and adjacent regions in Alaska, as well as one of seventeen core sub-languages spoken by Inuit across the Arctic. It is part of the Northern Alaska Dialect with neighboring Malimiutun with very similar linguistic features.

=History=

Tagiugmiutun is the newest dialect of Iñupiatun formed around 800 to 600 years ago, when the Inuit explorers had reached the western tip of the North Slope from the Kotzebue Shore. The dialect was developed specifically as the results of the isolation from the core Malimiutun (Coastal Malimiutun) spoken in Kotzebue and catalyzed as the Tagiugmiut (North Slope Iñupiat) continued moving to the east to Canadian border.

Different from other Alaskan dialects, Tagiugmiutun is spoken across the vast territory, nearly the size of combined territory of other three dialects in Alaska, all along the coast except for Anaktuvuk Pass located deep in the interior, which was later settled by Nunamiut who primarily speak Tagiugmiutun as well. Furthermore, the dialect does not have set of core and outlying dialects like other Iñupiatun, but rather have more uniform forms with regional differentiations due to its historical development from the coastal tradings and communications. The dialect is also known for its active movements in contemporary days, as the Tagiugmiut and Nunamiut showed more migration, especially across the Alaska-Canada border in last century, which hugely influeced the development of the modern Inuit languages in both nations.

=Dialects=

Tagiugmiutun is further subdivided into four subdialects: Common North Slope, Point Hope, Point Barrow, and Anaktuvuk Pass

Common North Slope Subdialect is the dialect spoken relatrively standardly across the coastal settlements of the North Slope stretching from Point Lay to Kaktovik. Though each settlement might have some distinictions, the dialect has been used throughout the northern half of Inuit territories of Alaska. It is also the most spoken Iñupiatun subdialect in Alaska, which makes the dialect be considered as the standard for the whole language in modern terms.

Point Hope Subdialect is a settlement-specific dialect spoken in the westernmost North Slope settlement of Point Hope. Due to its proximity to Malimiutun-speaking settlements like Kivalina, the subdialect distinctively holds features from neighboring dialects.

Point Barrow Subdialect is an extinict subdialect of Tagiugmiutun spoken around the Point Barrow, north of modern day Utqiagvik. Due to its remote location at the tip of the Barrow, the dialect wss able to keep its localistic features, which was then assimilated to Common North Slope as the speakers were relocated to neighboring Utqiagvik.

Anaktuvuk Pass Subdialect is the smallest and the most distinictive dialect of Tagiugmiutun spoken in the Inland North Slope by Nunamiut. The dialect was developed the latest only around 600 to 500 years ago as the Nunamiut was differentiated from Tagiugmiut as they settled deep into the interior.

=Ethnic Groups= Of around 120 ethnic subgroups of Inuit, nine subgroups in the North Slope traditionally spoke Tagiugmiutun: Utuqqagmiut, Silinagmiut, Kakligmiut, Kuulugruagmiut, Ikpikpagmiut, Kuukpigmiut, Tikigagmiut, Nuvungmiut, Nunamiut

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

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" ! A a || Ch ch || G g || Ġ ġ || H h || I i || K k || L l || Ḷ ḷ || Ł ł || Ł̣ ł̣ || M m ! N n || Ñ ñ || Ŋ ŋ || P p || Q q || R r || S s || Sr sr || T t || U u || V v || Y y
 * + Tagiugmiutun Alphabet