Editing Inuit languages (section)

== Nomenclature ==
The traditional language of the Inuit is a system of closely interrelated dialects that are not readily comprehensible from one end of the Inuit world to the other; some people do not think of it as a single language but rather a group of languages. However, there are no clear criteria for breaking the Inuit language into specific member languages since it forms a [[dialect continuum]]. Each band of Inuit understands its neighbours, and most likely its neighbours' neighbours; but at some remove, comprehensibility drops to a very low level.

As a result, Inuit in different places use different words for its own variants and for the entire group of languages, and this ambiguity has been carried into other languages, creating a great deal of confusion over what labels should be applied to it.

In Greenland the official form of Inuit language, and the official language of the state, is called ''Kalaallisut''. In other languages, it is often called ''[[Greenlandic language|Greenlandic]]'' or some [[cognate]] term. The Inuit languages of Alaska are called ''[[Inupiaq language|Inupiatun]]'', but the variants of the [[Seward Peninsula]] are distinguished from the other Alaskan variants by calling them ''[[Qawiaraq]]'', or for some dialects, ''[[Bering Strait]] Inupiatun''.

In Canada, the word ''[[Inuktitut]]'' is routinely used to refer to all Canadian variants of the Inuit traditional language, and it is under that name that it is recognised as one of the official languages of [[Nunavut]] and the [[Northwest Territories]]. However, one of the variants of western Nunavut, and the eastern Northwest Territories, is called ''[[Inuinnaqtun]]'' to distinguish itself from the dialects of eastern Canada, while the variants of the Northwest Territories are sometimes called ''[[Inuvialuktun]]'' and have in the past sometimes been called ''[[Inuktun]]''. In those dialects, the name is sometimes rendered as ''Inuktitun'' to reflect dialectal differences in pronunciation. The Inuit language of [[Quebec]] is called ''[[Inuttitut]]'' by its speakers, and often by other people, but this is a minor variation in pronunciation. In [[Labrador]], the language is called ''Inuttut'' or, often in official documents, by the more descriptive name ''Labradorimiutut''{{Citation needed|date=November 2024|reason=Can't find a reliable source for Labradorimiutut}}. Furthermore, Canadians{{snd}}both Inuit and non-Inuit{{snd}}sometimes use the word ''Inuktitut'' to refer to ''all'' Inuit language variants, including those of Alaska and Greenland.

The phrase ''"Inuit language"'' is largely limited to professional discourse, since in each area, there is one or more conventional terms that cover all the local variants; or it is used as a descriptive term in publications where readers can't necessarily be expected to know the locally used words. In Nunavut the government groups all dialects of Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun under the term ''[[Inuktut]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gov.nu.ca/culture-and-heritage/information/we-speak-inuktut|title=We Speak Inuktut|publisher=Government of Nunavut|access-date=October 11, 2022|archive-date=August 16, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816202346/https://gov.nu.ca/culture-and-heritage/information/we-speak-inuktut|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Although many people refer to the Inuit language as ''Eskimo language'', this is a broad term that also includes the [[Yupik languages]], and is in addition strongly discouraged in Canada and diminishing in usage elsewhere. See the article on ''[[Eskimo]]'' for more information on this word.