Vowels
Almost all dialects of Inuktitut have only three basic vowels and make a phonemic distinction between short and long vowels. In Inuujingajut (the standard alphabet of Nunavut) long vowels are written as a double vowel.
| IPA | Inuujingajut | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short open front unrounded | /a/ | a | |
| Long open front unrounded | /aː/ | aa | |
| Short closed front unrounded | /i/ | i | Short i is sometimes realised as or |
| Long closed front unrounded | /iː/ | ii | |
| Short closed back rounded | /u/ | u | Short u is sometimes realised as or |
| Long closed back rounded | /uː/ | uu |
In western Alaska, Qawiaraq and to some degree the Malimiutun variant of Inupiatun retains an additional vowel which was present in proto-Inuit and is still present in Yupik, but which has become /i/ or sometimes /a/ in all other dialects. Thus, the common Inuktitut word for water – imiq – is emeq (/əməq/) in Qawiaraq. (L.D. Kaplan, Arctic languages: an awakening, pg. 145)
Furthermore, many diphthongs in the Alaskan dialects have merged, suggesting the beginnings of a new more complex vowel scheme with more than three distinct vowels. This phenomenon is particularly noticeable in the Kobuk area, where the diphthongs /ua/ and /au/ are now both pronounced . Other diphthongs are also affected.
In contrast to the larger number of vowel contrasts in Alaskan dialects, in the dialect of northwest Greenland (particularly Upernavik), the phoneme /u/ has been replaced by /i/ in many contexts.
Otherwise, the three-vowel scheme described above holds for all of the Inuktitut dialects.
Read more about this topic: Inuit Language Phonology
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