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Tunumiisut
tunumiisut
Native to	East Greenland
Ethnicity	Tunumiit
Native speakers	(3,000–3,500 cited 1995)
Language family	Eskaleut Eskimo Inuit Greenlandic Tunumiisut
Early forms	Proto-Eskimo–Aleut Proto-Eskimo Proto-Inuit
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	tunu1234
IETF	kl-tunumiit
Map of the Inuit languages; Tunumiisut is grey.
East Greenlandic is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Tunumiisut (lit. 'language of the Tunumiit'), also known as East Greenlandic (Danish: østgrønlandsk), is the language of the Tunumiit in East Greenland. It is generally categorised as a dialect of Greenlandic, but verges on being a distinct language. 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.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

The following sounds may also occur as geminated; /pː, tː, kː, qː, sː, mː, nː, ŋː/.

• /v/ may be heard as either , , or .

• /l/ may also be heard as in initial positions.

• Sounds /s, sː/ may also be heard as palatalized sounds when in palatal positions.

• Sounds /k/ and /q/ may also have intervocalic allophones as and .

• Nasals /ŋ, ɴ/ can be heard as nasalized fricatives in various environments.

References

1. 3,000 in Greenland, and perhaps 20% more in Denmark. Greenlandic at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
2. Nicole Tersis, in Variations on polysynthesis: the Eskaleut languages Ch. 4
3. ^ 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.

v t e Eskaleut languages
Aleut	Aleut Mednyj Aleut
Eskimoan	Inuit Greenlandic Kalaallisut Tunumiit Inuktitut North Baffin Inuttitut Inuktun Inuvialuktun Siglitun Aivilik Inuinnaqtun Kangiryuarmiutun Kivalliq Netsilik Utkuhiksalik Iñupiaq (Iñupiaq Braille) Qawiaraq Uummarmiutun Yupik Alutiiq Central Alaskan Yugtun Nunivak Cup'ig Chevak Cup’ik Central Siberian Chaplino St. Lawrence Island Naukan Sirenik
See also	Proto-Eskaleut Proto-Eskimoan Inuktitut syllabics (writing system) Inuit phonology Inuit grammar Kaktovik numerals Yugtun script
Italics indicate extinct languages 1: The Inuit language 'family' is a continuum of dialects 2: Some linguists classify Sirenik as under a separate branch

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