Inuktitut syllabics

Inuktitut syllabics (Inuktitut: ᖃᓂᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ, romanized: qaniujaaqpait, or ᑎᑎᕋᐅᓯᖅ ᓄᑖᖅ, titirausiq nutaaq) is an abugida-type writing system used in Canada by the Inuktitut-speaking Inuit of the territory of Nunavut and the Nunavik region of Quebec. It helps people write and share their language and culture. In 1976, it became one of the two official ways to write Inuktitut, along with the Latin script.

The name qaniujaaqpait comes from a word meaning "mouth," showing how important speech and language are. There is also another name, qaliujaaqpait, which talks about markings found in rocks. The phrase titirausiq nutaaq means "new writing system." This helps make the old ways of writing easier and better for today.

Inuktitut syllabics is part of a bigger group called Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. People can use computers to write it because it has special codes called Unicode. This makes it easy to use Inuktitut on phones, computers, and the internet.

History

The first attempts to write the Inuktitut language began with Moravian missionaries in Greenland and Labrador during the mid-1800s. They used the Latin script to create written Inuktitut. In 1855–56, a small book called Selections from the Gospels was printed using a special writing system called Cree script.

Later, missionaries worked to change this writing system to better fit the Inuktitut language. By the 1870s, more books were being printed using these new writing rules. People continued to develop ways to write Inuktitut using both special scripts and the regular Latin alphabet.

Table

The Inuktitut script, also called titirausiq nutaaq, is often shown as a syllabary. Small dots on the letters show long vowels; in the Latin version, the vowel is written twice. For geminate consonants, the final consonant symbol is placed before the CV syllabic. For example, the sounds -kku- and -nnu- are written as ᒃᑯ and ᓐᓄ.

A chart showing the script is also available.

Modifications

The Makivik Corporation added a new part to the Inuktitut syllabics script to bring back the ai-pai-tai column. The common sound ai used to be shown by joining the a shape with a single letter ᐃ i. This special form was taken out in the 1970s because old typewriters and printers couldn’t handle it well. Now, with better printing tools, the ai-pai-tai column was added back, but it is only used in Nunavik.