Iñupiaq or Inupiaq ( / ɪ ˈ n uː p i æ k / ih- NOO -pee-ak , Inupiaq: [iɲupiaq] ), also known as Iñupiat , Inupiat ( / ɪ ˈ n uː p i æ t / ih- NOO -pee-at ), Iñupiatun or Alaskan Inuit , is an Inuit language , or perhaps group of languages, spoken by the Iñupiat people in northern and northwestern Alaska , as well as a small adjacent part of the Northwest Territories of Canada. The Iñupiat language is a member of the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan language family , and is closely related and, to varying degrees, mutually intelligible with other Inuit languages of Canada and Greenland. There are roughly 2,000 speakers. Iñupiaq is considered to be a threatened language, with most speakers at or above the age of 40. Iñupiaq is an official language of the State of Alaska, along with several other indigenous languages.
34-687: Point Lay ( Kali in Inupiaq - "Mound") is a census-designated place (CDP) in North Slope Borough, Alaska , United States. At the 2020 census the population was 330, up from 189 in 2010. Point Lay is located on the shores of the Chukchi Sea . According to the United States Census Bureau , the CDP has a total area of 34.5 square miles (89 km), of which, 30.5 square miles (79 km) of it
68-472: A consonant cluster. All Iñupiaq dialects have three basic vowel qualities : /a i u/. There is currently no instrumental work to determine what allophones may be linked to these vowels. All three vowels can be long or short, giving rise to a system of six phonemic vowels /a aː i iː u uː/. Long vowels are represented by double letters in the orthography: ⟨aa⟩, ⟨ii⟩, ⟨uu⟩. The following diphthongs occur: /ai ia au ua iu ui/. No more than two vowels occur in
102-528: A sequence in Iñupiaq. The Bering strait dialect has a fourth vowel /e/, which preserves the fourth proto-Eskimo vowel reconstructed as */ə/. In the other dialects, proto-Eskimo */e/ has merged with the closed front vowel /i/. The merged /i/ is referred to as the "strong /i/", which causes palatalization when preceding consonant clusters in the North Slope dialect (see section on palatalization below). The other /i/
136-406: A tundra climate (Koppen ET) with long, very cold winters and short, cool to mild summers. Point Lay first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as an unincorporated Inuit village. All 30 of its residents were Inuit. It returned again in 1890 with 77 residents, all native. It did not appear again until 1940 and again in 1950. The original settlement on the barrier island was relocated a mile to the east on
170-724: Is siun whereas in Uummarmiutun it is hiun . A word may end in any nasal sound (except for the /ɴ/ found in North Slope), in the stops /t k q/ or in a vowel. In the North Slope dialect if a word ends with an m, and the next word begins with a stop, the m is pronounced /p/, as in aġna m t upiŋa, pronounced /aʁna p tupiŋa/ Very little information of the prosody of Iñupiaq has been collected. However, "fundamental frequency (Hz), intensity (dB), loudness (sones), and spectral tilt (phons - dB) may be important" in Malimiutun. Likewise, "duration
204-495: Is "a mix of the various speech forms formerly used in the area". The Point Barrow dialect was "spoken only by a few elders" in 2010. A dialect of North Slope is also spoken in Kivalina , Point Lay , Wainwright , Atqasuk , Utqiaġvik , Nuiqsut , and Barter Island . Iñupiaq dialects differ widely between consonants used. However, consonant clusters of more than two consonants in a row do not occur. A word may not begin nor end with
238-480: Is land and 4.0 square miles (10 km) of it (11.66%) is water. Point Lay once was on a barrier island of Kasegaluk Lagoon , but moved to the mainland near the mouth of the Kokolik River during the 1970s. A weather station was operated from October 1949 to March 1958. Apart from its landmass that is in mainland Alaska, it also consists two peninsulas that are found on its most northwestern side. Point Lay has
272-461: Is not likely to be important in Malimiut Iñupiaq stress/syllable prominence". For North Slope Iñupiaq The voiceless stops /p/ /t/ /k/ and /q/ are not aspirated. This may or may not be true for other dialects as well. /c/ is derived from a palatalized and unreleased /t/. Source: Two consonants cannot appear together unless they share the manner of articulation (in this case treating
306-505: Is other than English, [then the school] shall have at least one teacher who is fluent in the native language". Today, the University of Alaska Fairbanks offers bachelor's degrees in Iñupiaq language and culture, while a preschool/kindergarten-level Iñupiaq immersion school named Nikaitchuat Iḷisaġviat teaches grades PreK-1st grade in Kotzebue . In 2014, Iñupiaq became an official language of
340-524: Is preceded by an ⟨i⟩, it is weak. Words begin with a stop (with the exception of the palatal stop /c/), the fricative /s/, nasals /m n/, with a vowel, or the semivowel /j/. Loanwords , proper names, and exclamations may begin with any segment in both the Seward Peninsula dialects and the North Slope dialects. In the Uummarmiutun dialect words can also begin with /h/. For example, the word for "ear" in North Slope and Little Diomede Island dialects
374-432: Is referred to as "the weak /i/". Weak and strong /i/s are not differentiated in orthography, making it impossible to tell which ⟨i⟩ represents palatalization "short of looking at other processes which depend on the distinction between two i's or else examining data from other Eskimo languages". However, it can be assumed that, within a word, if a palatal consonant is preceded by an ⟨i⟩, it is strong. If an alveolar consonant
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#1733085555511408-603: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . The entire coastal plain of Alaska has tremendous ecological importance with the densest concentration of birds in the Arctic. Under the North Slope is an ancient seabed, which now contains large amounts of petroleum . Within the North Slope, there is a geological feature called the Barrow Arch — a belt of the kind of rock known to be able to serve as a trap for oil. It runs from
442-523: The Cold War . The station was decommissioned during the 1990s, and the radar dishes were dismantled sometime between 2004 and 2006. Inupiaq language The major varieties of the Iñupiaq language are the North Slope Iñupiaq and Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq dialects. The Iñupiaq language has been in decline since contact with English in the late 19th century. American territorial acquisition and
476-735: The National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA), which was established by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 as an oil supply for the US Navy, though the presence of oil in the region had been known by American whalers for some time. It contains the bulk of Alaska's known petroleum until the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field was discovered (outside the NPRA) in 1968, followed by the Kuparuk River oil field in 1969. The petroleum extracted from
510-1446: The Big Diomede Island was moved to the Siberian mainland after World War II. The following generation of the population spoke Central Siberian Yupik or Russian. The entire population of King Island moved to Nome in the early 1960s. The Bering Strait dialect might also be spoken in Teller on the Seward Peninsula . Qawiaraq dialect : A dialect of Qawiaraq is spoken in Nome . A dialect of Qawariaq may also be spoken in Koyuk , Mary's Igloo , Council, and Elim . The Teller sub-dialect may be spoken in Unalakleet . Malimiutun dialect : Both sub-dialects can be found in Buckland , Koyuk , Shaktoolik , and Unalakleet . A dialect of Malimiutun may be spoken in Deering , Kiana , Noorvik , Shungnak , and Ambler . The Malimiutun sub-dialects have also been classified as "Southern Malimiut" (found in Koyuk , Shaktoolik , and Unalakleet ) and "Northern Malimiut" found in "other villages". North Slope dialect: Common North Slope
544-522: The CDP was $ 18,003. About 11.4% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line , including 8.1% of those under the age of eighteen and none of those 65 or over. The village has an annual hunt of beluga whales within the Kasegaluk Lagoon . On the Fourth of July, a parade runs through town led by the fire engines and ambulances of the town's modern fire department. The Inupaiq name for
578-530: The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field and neighboring reserves is also a potential source for unconventional tight oil and shale gas – possibly containing "up to 2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and up to 80 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2012 U.S. Geological Survey report." Alaska North Slope (ANS) is a more expensive waterborne crude oil. Since 1987, Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude production has been in decline. As of 2020,
612-460: The State of Alaska, alongside English and nineteen other indigenous languages. In 2018, Facebook added Iñupiaq as a language option on their website. In 2022, an Iñupiaq version of Wordle was created. There are four main dialect divisions and these can be organized within two larger dialect collections: Extra geographical information: Bering Strait dialect: The Native population of
646-426: The age of 18 living with them, 45.9% were married couples living together, 18.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.6% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 1.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.93 and the average family size was 4.57. In the CDP, the age distribution of the population shows 46.2% under
680-460: The age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 24.7% from 25 to 44, 17.0% from 45 to 64, and 2.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 21 years. For every 100 females, there were 135.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 133.3 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $ 68,750, and the median income for a family was $ 75,883. Males had a median income of $ 46,071 versus $ 25,625 for females. The per capita income for
714-522: The boots on Kami k + n iaq + te → {kami gn iaqtuq or kami ŋn iaqtuq} {"to put boots on"} + "will" + "he" → {he will put the boots on} iḷisa q "to study" Alaska North Slope The Alaska North Slope is the region of the U.S. state of Alaska located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean , the Chukchi Sea being on
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#1733085555511748-669: The bottom of the Landsat 7 image on the right, the rugged terrain of the Brooks Range mountains is snow-covered in places (blue areas) and exposed (pink areas) in others. Much of the region is located politically in North Slope Borough , and geographically in the Alaska North Slope basin . On August 12, 2018, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the region, the most powerful recorded for the Alaskan North Slope. The region includes
782-495: The census of 2000, there were 247 people, 61 households, and 45 families living in the CDP. The population density was 8.1 people per square mile (3.1/km). There were 67 housing units at an average density of 2.2 per square mile (0.8/km). The racial makeup of the CDP was 11.34% White , 82.59% Native American , 0.40% Asian , and 5.67% from two or more races. 2.43% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 61 households, out of which 50.8% had children under
816-570: The city of Utqiaġvik to a point just west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Ira Harkey quotes Noel Wien as stating that in the 1920s, "To keep warm and to cook with, the Eskimo was burning hunks of dark stuff he just picked up on the ground all around his tent. This was oil from seepage under the tundra. The Eskimos had always known about the oil, long before there was any drilling for it." The North Slope region includes
850-546: The densest concentration of birds in the Arctic, along with housing substantial amounts of large mammals such as whales, walrus, seals, caribou, and moose. The region includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as well as the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA). Within the North Slope, only a surface "active layer" of the tundra thaws each season; most of the soil is permanently frozen year-round. On top of this permafrost , water flows out to sea via shallow, braided streams or settles into pools and ponds. Along
884-697: The entire Arctic coast and much of the surrounding inland areas. The Iñupiaq dialects are the most conservative forms of the Inuit language, with less linguistic change than the other Inuit languages. In the mid to late 19th century, Russian, British, and American colonists made contact with Iñupiat people. In 1885, the American territorial government appointed Rev. Sheldon Jackson as General Agent of Education. Under his administration, Iñupiat people (and all Alaska Natives) were educated in English-only environments, forbidding
918-410: The lateral and approximant consonants as fricatives). The only exception to this rule is having a voiced fricative consonant appear with a nasal consonant. Since all stops in North Slope are voiceless, a lot of needed assimilation arises from having to assimilate a voiceless stop to a voiced consonant. This process is realized by assimilating the first consonant in the cluster to a consonant that: 1) has
952-469: The legacy of boarding schools have created a situation today where a small minority of Iñupiat speak the Iñupiaq language. There is, however, revitalization work underway today in several communities. The Iñupiaq language is an Inuit language , the ancestors of which may have been spoken in the northern regions of Alaska for as long as 5,000 years. Between 1,000 and 800 years ago, Inuit migrated east from Alaska to Canada and Greenland , eventually occupying
986-444: The mainland in the 1970s. The new village of Point Lay returned on the 1980 U.S. Census and was made a census-designated place (CDP). It has continued to return on each successive census. As of the 2010 United States Census , there were 189 people living in the CDP. The racial makeup of the CDP was 88.4% Native American, 10.1% White, 0.5% Pacific Islander and 0.5% from two or more races. 0.5% were Hispanic or Latino of any race. As of
1020-735: The region is transferred south by means of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System to Valdez on the Pacific Ocean . In 2005 the USGS estimated that the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province, encompassing all the lands and adjacent Continental Shelf areas north of the Brooks Range-Herald arch (see map) held more than 50 billion bbl of oil and natural-gas liquids and 227 trillion cubic feet of gas. The source rock for
1054-533: The same (or closest possible) area of articulation as the consonant being assimilated to; and 2) has the same manner of articulation as the second consonant that it is assimilating to. If the second consonant is a lateral or approximant, the first consonant will assimilate to a lateral or approximant if possible. If not the first consonant will assimilate to a fricative. Therefore: Kami k "to put boots on" + + n iaq "will" + + te "he" → → kami gn iaqtuq or kami ŋn iaqtuq he will put
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1088-500: The use of Iñupiaq and other indigenous languages of Alaska. After decades of English-only education, with strict punishment if heard speaking Iñupiaq, after the 1970s, most Iñupiat did not pass the Iñupiaq language on to their children, for fear of them being punished for speaking their language. In 1972, the Alaska Legislature passed legislation mandating that if "a [school is attended] by at least 15 pupils whose primary language
1122-560: The village is Kali, which means "mound", after a raised area on the barrier island where the old village stood. The school and fire department bear the name Kali. The Kali school is a part of the North Slope Borough School District . Until recently, a cluster of radar dishes existed near Point Lay. These were a part of the Distant Early Warning Line , a system of defensive radar installations built during
1156-585: The western side of Point Barrow , and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern. With the exception of the highway connecting Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay , the region is disconnected from the rest of the Alaskan road system and relies mostly on waterways and small airports for transportation due to the Brooks Range secluding the region from the rest of the state. The entire Arctic coastal plain of Alaska with its Arctic coastal tundra has tremendous ecological importance with
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