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Greenlandic

Also known as Greenlandic Inuktitut, Kalaallisut, Greenlandic Inuit language, Kalaallisut language, Greenlandic Inuktitut language, Greenlandic Eskimo language, Greenlandic Eskimo, Greenlandic language

Eskimo-Aleut language spoken in Greenland

AI overview

Greenlandic is an Eskimo-Aleut language spoken by people in Greenland as their primary means of communication. It matters because it represents an important indigenous language of the Arctic region and serves as a key part of Greenlandic cultural and national identity.

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Wikidata facts

Image: Kalaallisut-noentry-sign-home-rule.jpg

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Commons category: Greenlandic language
Wikimedia language code: kl
native label: Kalaallisut
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 56200
exact match: publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/KAL
P10369: Albania
P11012: Ternand

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Article

Greenlandic, also known by its endonym Kalaallisut (kalaallisut, [kalaːɬːisʉt]), is an Inuit language belonging to the Eskimoan branch of the Eskaleut language family. It is primarily spoken by the Greenlandic people native to Greenland, with about 57,000 native speakers as of 2025, making it the largest Eskaleut language by number of speakers. Written in the Latin script, it is the sole official language of Greenland, and a recognized minority language in Denmark.

In June 2009, the government of Greenland, the Naalakkersuisut, made Greenlandic the sole official language of the autonomous territory, to strengthen it in the face of competition from the colonial language, Danish. Greenlandic is closely related to Canadian Inuit languages such as Inuktitut. The main variety is Kalaallisut, or West Greenlandic. The second variety is Tunumiit oraasiat, or East Greenlandic. The language of the Inughuit (Thule Inuit) of Greenland, Inuktun or Polar Inuit, is a recent arrival and a dialect of Inuktitut.