Tunumiit language

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East Greenlandic
Tunumiit oraasiat
Native to East Greenland
Ethnicity Tunumiit
Native speakers
3,000–3,500 (1995)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog tunu1234[2]
Inuktitut dialect map.svg
Inuit dialects. Tunumiit is grey.

Tunumiit oraasiat or East Greenlandic, known as Tunumiisut in Kalaallisut, is a variety of Greenlandic spoken in eastern Greenland by the Tunumiit. It is generally considered a divergent dialect of Greenlandic, but verges on being a distinct language.[3][4] The largest town where it is the primary language is Tasiilaq on Ammassalik Island, with the Island's name being derived from the West Greenlandic name of the town.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ 3,000 in Greenland, and perhaps 20% more in Denmark. Greenlandic at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Tunumiisiut". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  3. ^ Nicole Tersis, in Variations on polysynthesis: the Eskaleut languages Ch. 4
  4. ^ Mennecier, Philippe (1995). Le tunumiisut, dialecte inuit du Groenland oriental: description et analyse. Collection linguistique, 78 (in French). Société de linguistique de Paris, Peeters Publishers.