Editing Inuit languages (section)

== Phonology and phonetics ==
{{Main|Inuit phonology}}

Eastern Canadian Inuit language variants have fifteen [[consonant]]s and three [[vowel]]s (which can be long or short).

Consonants are arranged with five [[place of articulation|places of articulation]]: [[bilabial consonant|bilabial]], [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]], [[palatal consonant|palatal]], [[velar consonant|velar]] and [[uvular consonant|uvular]]; and three [[manner of articulation|manners of articulation]]: voiceless [[stop consonant|stops]], voiced [[continuant]]s, and [[nasal consonant|nasals]], as well as two additional sounds—voiceless [[Fricative consonant|fricatives]]. The Alaskan dialects have an additional manner of articulation, the ''[[retroflex consonant|retroflex]]'', which was present in proto-Inuit language. Retroflexes have disappeared in all the Canadian and Greenlandic dialects. In Natsilingmiutut, the [[voiced palatal stop]] {{IPA|/ɟ/}} derives from a former retroflex.

Almost all Inuit language variants have only three basic vowels and make a phonological distinction between short and long forms of all vowels. The only exceptions are at the extreme edges of the Inuit world: parts of Greenland, and in western Alaska.