Inupiat Language - Dialects

Dialects

There are four main dialect divisions and these can be organized within two larger dialect collections:

• Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq, consisting of:
  • Bering Strait: spoken on King Island and the Diomede Islands and in the villages north of Nome, Alaska; subdialects:
    • Diomede
    • Wales
    • King Island
  • Qawiaraq: spoken in Teller, near the original village of Qawiaraq, and in the villages south of Nome as far as Unalakleet; subdialects:
    • Teller
    • Fish River

• Northern Alaskan Iñupiaq: spoken south of Kivalina and around Kotzebue, along the Kobuk River and at the head of the Norton Sound, in Koyuk and Unalakleet; consisting of:
  • Malimiutun, consisting of subdialects:
    • Kobuk
    • Kotzebue
  • North Slope: spoken along the Arctic coast as far south as Kivalina; subdialects:
    • Common North Slope
    • Point Barrow
    • Anaktuvuk Pass (Nunamiut)
    • Uummarmiutun: spoken in the Mackenzie Delta (Aklavik and Inuvik) in the Northwest Territories, Canada