Pirurvik is an Inuit-owned centre for language, culture and wellbeing, based
in Nunavut’s capital, Iqaluit. As we work to advance Inuit language and knowledge,
Pirurvik develops training and wellness programs that have been delivered
throughout Nunavut. An important part of this work involves reading and
writing texts in Inuktut. Because Nunavut has two writing systems for writing
Inuktut, qaliujaaqpait and ᖃᓂᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ (qaniujaaqpait), we rely on computer
tools to easily transliterate text from one writing system to the other. This is the
purpose of this app that Pirurvik is making available to Inuktut speakers and
learners everywhere.
Qaliujaaqpait is the writing system that uses the roman alphabet to represent the sounds of Inuktut. It is the main writing system in the communities of Qurluqtuq (Kugluktuk) and Iqaluktuuttiaq. Elsewhere in Nunavut, qaniujaaqpait (ᖃᓂᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ), also known as syllabics, is the most common writing system.
Both qaliujaaqpait and qaniujaaqpait were standardized by the Inuit Language Commission of the Inuit Cultural Insitute (ICI) in the 1970s. With standardization, each character in one writing system has only one equivalent in the other. This makes transliteration between the two systems straightforward.
The only exception are the syllabic characters ᓯ, ᓱ, ᓴ. Speakers in the Qikiqtaaluk region and in the communities of Rankin Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet and Naujaat pronounce these characters as si, su, sa and use the letter s to write the sound in qaliujaaqpait. Speakers elsewhere in Nunavut pronounce these characters as hi, hu, ha and use the letter h in qaliujaaqpait. Users of this app have an option to use a western transliteration (ᓯ, ᓱ, ᓴ = hi, hu, ha) or an eastern transliteration (ᓯ, ᓱ, ᓴ = si, su, sa).
