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.[2][3] 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.
Tunumiisut | |
---|---|
tunumiisut | |
Native to | East Greenland |
Ethnicity | Tunumiit |
Native speakers | (3,000–3,500 cited 1995)[1] |
Eskaleut
| |
Early forms | |
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 |
References
edit- ^ 3,000 in Greenland, and perhaps 20% more in Denmark. Greenlandic at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
- ^ Nicole Tersis, in Variations on polysynthesis: the Eskaleut languages Ch. 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.