WIA LANGUAGES PROJECT

[Day 13/221]

ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ

Inuktitut | 이누이트어

“Songs on Ice, Revival of Vocal Games”

We are not saving languages. We are saving humanity.

Whispers Beyond the Arctic Circle

Beyond the Arctic Circle, on lands where trees cannot grow, the Inuit people have endured the harshest environments for thousands of years. Their language, Inuktitut (ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ), is not merely a communication tool but wisdom for survival, dialogue with nature, and humanity’s memory etched upon eternally frozen ground.

Today, WIA Languages encounters the language of Canada’s Far North on Day 13 of our 221-day journey. According to the 2021 Canadian Census, approximately 41,675 people speak Inuktitut, with 37,520 reporting it as their mother tongue. Spoken across Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, and the Northwest Territories, this language holds official status as one of Canada’s recognized Indigenous languages.

The remarkable fact is the average age of speakers. Inuktitut speakers average 29 years old, eight years younger than the 37-year average for all Canadian Indigenous language speakers. Particularly in Nunavik, 98% of children still speak Inuktitut. This provides powerful evidence that the language lives, transmits, and remains meaningful to younger generations.

4,000 Years Etched Upon Ice

The Inuit people migrated from Siberia across the Bering Strait to North America’s Far North approximately 4,000 years ago. Inuktitut, belonging to the Eskimo-Aleut language family, spread across the vast Arctic region from Alaska to Greenland.

Until European arrival, Inuktitut was purely an oral language. Survival techniques on ice, seal and whale hunting methods, wisdom for reading blizzards and polar bear movements— all embedded within the language. Without any writing system, the Inuit people perfectly preserved and transmitted their knowledge and stories for thousands of years.

In the 19th century, Anglican missionaries developed a syllabic writing system for Inuktitut based on Cree syllabics. This unique writing system became part of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and is widely used today in Nunavut and central Canadian Arctic regions. Labrador and western regions use Roman orthography.

However, the colonial era left scars on Inuktitut. With the introduction of residential schools, Inuit children were forcibly separated from their homes and required to learn only English or French. Katajjaq throat singing was banned for over 100 years by Christian missionaries, who viewed this tradition as “non-Christian and barbaric.” During that time when language and culture were simultaneously suppressed, many Inuit people lost their identity.

Voices of Revival, Flying Digital

In 1999, a historic moment arrived. The Canadian federal government approved Nunavut Territory as an independent autonomous region. Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun became Nunavut’s four official languages alongside English and French. It also gained recognition as one of eight official languages in the Northwest Territories.

Beginning in the 1980s, Katajjaq throat singing began its revival. Young generations and elders gathered to relearn and teach this tradition. When the first Inuit throat singing conference was held in Puvernituk, Nunavik in 2001, 100 Katajjaq singers gathered from across the Arctic. They produced the most comprehensive throat singing recording and established a national throat singers’ association.

Contemporary Inuit artists like Tanya Tagaq, The Jerry Cans, Susan Aglukark, and Elisapie brought traditional throat singing to world stages by blending it with rock, pop, hip-hop, and folk. In November 2015, when 11-year-old girls Samantha Metcalfe and Cailyn Degrandpre performed Katajjaq at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s swearing-in ceremony, millions of Canadians were captivated by its beauty.

On December 6, 2024, another revolution began. The Government of Nunavut, in collaboration with Microsoft, launched Inuktitut text-to-speech (TTS) functionality. Through Azure AI Speech services, two neural voices—Siqiniq (female) and Taqqiq (male)—now speak Inuktitut. Children can now hear digital stories in their language, elders can transmit traditional tales through voice, and healthcare workers can communicate with patients in Inuktitut.

In 2019, after eight years of work, a unified Latin alphabet orthography called Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait was adopted. Designed to be typed on electronic devices without diacritics, this system complements rather than replaces syllabics, allowing all regional speakers to continue using their familiar writing systems.

Precision Crafted by Ice

Inuktitut is a polysynthetic language. A single word contains complex concepts that would require entire sentences in English. By continuously adding prefixes and suffixes to verbs, it expresses subject, object, tense, aspect, and location all at once.

Consider this word from central Nunavut dialect: qangatasuukkuvimmuuriaqalaaqtunga. This single word means “I cannot hear very well.” One word forms a complete sentence. Analysis of Nunavut Hansard revealed that 92% of all words appeared only once— an unimaginable proportion in English corpora.

Inuktitut has only three basic vowels (i, a, u). However, length changes meaning, and 15 consonants form intricate combinations. A famous myth claims Inuktitut has over 50 words for “snow.” This is a misconception. But the truth is more fascinating. Inuktitut describes snow conditions with extreme precision: falling snow, accumulated snow, melting snow, hard snow, soft snow, wind-blown snow— each represents information crucial for survival.

Digital Tundra, Eternal Home for Voices

WIA Languages preserves all Inuktitut dialects—Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun—in digital archives. We do not “create” languages with AI. Instead, we systematize decades of accumulated linguistic materials, voice recordings, oral stories, and Katajjaq performances into digital form for future generations.

The complete Inuktitut Bible translation finished in 2012, the comprehensive recording collection from the 2001 Katajjaq conference, Markoosie Patsauq’s novel “Harpoon of the Hunter,” Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk’s “Sanaaq”—all these literary works and oral materials are contained in one unified digital preservation repository.

Like the collaboration between Nunavut Government and Microsoft, we use technology as a tool for cultural preservation. We digitally integrate the work of Avataq Cultural Institute, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and Nunavik Inuktitut Language Authority. We build platforms where anyone, anywhere in the world can learn, research, listen to, and speak Inuktitut.

The Universe Within a Game

Katajjaq is not simply a song. It is a survival strategy, a tool for community bonding, and an art that imitates nature. Goose calls, caribou footsteps, wind sounds, flowing water— all meld into throat singing. During long winter nights while men were away hunting, women entertained each other with this game, lulled babies, and strengthened community bonds.

Two women face each other, using each other’s mouths as resonance chambers, creating rhythm with inhalation and exhalation. One person’s strong accent interlocks with the other’s weak beat, and two voices merge into a nearly indistinguishable single sound. This is competition but simultaneously cooperation. When someone laughs first, runs out of breath, or loses rhythm, the game ends, but that laughter itself is victory. Because joy is the purpose.

Inuktitut itself contains this philosophy. Though 98% of Nunavik children still speak the language, language specialist Zebedee Nungak warns: “The Inuktitut we’re speaking now is only about 40% of what our grandparents’ command of the language was. We are being carpet-bombed by English and French through television, radio, computers and video games. Inuktitut is eroding dramatically and we are conducting ourselves in semi-panic mode to try to save it.”

After 221 Days, Voices on Ice Forever

After 221 days, when 221 languages are complete in digital record, Inuktitut remains as the 13th milestone. From vocal games to digital revival, from banned tradition to global art, from oral language to AI speech synthesis—Inuktitut has changed, adapted, and survived.

Microsoft’s Inuktitut TTS in 2024, unified orthography in 2019, Nunavut Territory establishment in 1999, Katajjaq revival in the 1980s— all these moments prove languages do not die. They merely sleep. And when communities awaken them, technology preserves them, and young generations sing them, that silence becomes voice again.

When Inuit youth blend hip-hop with throat singing, when 11-year-old girls perform Katajjaq at a prime minister’s inauguration, when digital archives open worldwide—that is the quiet revolution. Songs on ice no longer remain only on ice. They will live forever in clouds, smartphones, VR headsets, and in the hearts of future generations.

WIA Languages Project

Connecting the world through 221 languages
A quiet revolution, humanity’s digital archive

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Day 13/221: Inuktitut
“Quietly, unwaveringly, one step at a time”

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