Studying an Inuit Language Threatened with Extinction
We’re heading north for the Geo Quiz this time. Way north, to one of the globe’s northernmost inhabited settlements.
This village, population 68 at last count, is in northwestern Greenland, a mere 850 miles from the North Pole. Canada’s much closer, less than 100 miles to the west.
The language spoken here, by the way, is called Inuktun. Linguists don’t know much about it, except that it’s dying out.
The name of the village is Siorapaluk, Greenland. It’s where linguist Stephen Leonard of Cambridge University lived for a year. The World’s Patrick Cox reports on his findings.
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