Group | Subgroup | Languages |
Aleut Group | Aleut (700 speakers) |
Aleut: Southwestern Alaska |
Eskimo Group | Inuit (65,000 speakers) |
Alaskan Inupiak Western Canadian Inuktun: Beaufort Sea, Central Arctic Eastern Canadian Inuktitut: Nunavut, Hudson Bay, New Quebec Inuinnaqtun: Nunavut and Hudson Bay Itivimiut: Quebec coast of Hudson Bay Tarramiut: Ungava Bay (Quebec) Kalaallisut (Greenlandic): Greenland |
Eskimo Group | Inuit (65,000 speakers) |
Alaskan Inupiak Western Canadian Inuktun: Beaufort Sea, Central Arctic Eastern Canadian Inuktitut: Nunavut, Hudson Bay, New Quebec Inuinnaqtun: Nunavut and Hudson Bay Itivimiut: Quebec coast of Hudson Bay Tarramiut: Ungava Bay (Quebec) Kalaallisut (Greenlandic): Greenland |
Eskimo-Aleut Family
The Eskimo-Aleut family consists of two groups (Aleut and Eskimo) that include twenty languages or dialects spoken by some 65,000 people. Many linguists use the term dialects because these idioms make up an Inuit speech group that includes Inuttut in Eastern Labrador, Inuttitut on Southern Baffin Island, Inuktitut on Northern Baffin Island, and Aivilik and Kivalliq in Keewatin, Ontario. Combined with the varieties of Greenlandic (West Greenlandic, East Greenlandic, and Thule Greenlandic), the dialects of the Western Canadian Arctic (Natsilik, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun), and those of Alaska (Northern Inupiat, Malimiutun, Qawiaraq, and the Bering dialect), this group makes up a single language: Inuit.
Other languages spoken in Southwestern Alaska (United States) and the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia’s extreme northeast are also closely related to Inuit. This includes languages in the Yupik subgroup: Central Alaskan Yupik, Alutiiq, Central Siberian Yupik, and Naukanski. Sirenikski—almost extinct—and Aleut, spoken on the Aleutian Islands in Southwestern Alaska, could also be added, the latter being a distant relative of preceding languages. A total of seven languages (including Inuit) belong to the Eskimo-Aleut family and are spoken in four countries: Russia, the United States (Alaska), Canada, and Greenland.
