Alaska Native Languages

About Iñupiaq

Iñupiaq/Inupiaq is spoken by the Iñupiat/Inupiat on the Seward Peninsula, the Northwest Arctic and the North Slope of Alaska and in Western Canada. It is closely related to other Inuit languages across the Arctic in Canada and Greenland. It is divided into two main dialects: Seward Peninsula and Northern Alaskan. About 2,144 speak the language, most of them elderly. Iñupiatun means literally "like an Iñupiaq (person)."

Like Yup’ik, Iñupiaq has three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural. For instance, the word for polar bear is nanuq, nannuk or nannut, depending on whether you are talking about one, two, or three or more polar bear(s).