Skip to main content Skip to local navigation
Home » Inuit Languages

Inuit Languages

The Inuit languages are a subfamily of North American Indigenous languages. The Inuit languages are spoken widely across Canada and the United States, in a geographical area stretching from the Western Alaskan coast to the North Coastline of Labrador and beyond to Greeland. Inuit languages are most commonly spoken in the Northern Territories, as well as parts of Northern Quebec and Labrador (1).

In Canada, a total of 42,795 people reported speaking a language belonging to the Inuit language family in 2021. This makes the Inuit Languages the 2nd most spoken Indigenous language subfamily in Canada. About 33,790 people in Canada speak an Inuit language as their mother tongue. Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun are the primary languages within the Inuit language family (2). 

Map of Inuit languages and dialects (3).