(), also known as West Greenlandic (), is the primary and official language of Greenland. It is spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of Greenland, as well as by thousands of Greenlandic Inuit in Denmark proper (in total, approximately 50,000 people). It was historically spoken in the southwestern part of Greenland, i.e. the region around Nuuk, as opposed to the related Greenlandic languages in the northwestern and eastern parts of the island. It has been an official language of Greenland since the 18th century, and the sole official language since 2009.
Classification
Kalaallisut is a member of the Inuit–Yupik–Unangan (Eskaleut) language family, which stretches across the Arctic from Siberia to Greenland. It is a member of the Inuit branch of the language family. Kalaallisut is one of three Inuit languages within Greenland, alongside Tunumiisut (East Greenlandic) and Inuktun (North Greenlandic or Polar Inuit). West Greenlandic has the most speakers of the three. The standard form of Greenlandic is based on Kalaallisut as spoken in the central west coast of Greenland. This region includes the capital Nuuk, Sisimiut, and Maniitsoq, some of the most populated cities of Greenland. Kalaallisut has also had some contact influence on Danish; in Nuuk, there is an emerging dialect of Danish with Kalaallisut-style prosody.
Permanent residents of Greenland are required by law to attempt to learn Greenlandic.
An extinct mixed trade language known as West Greenlandic Pidgin was based on West Greenlandic.
Phonology
Consonants
West Greenlandic uses around 14 consonants, depending on the subdialect:
Vowels
thumb|Ranges of West Greenlandic monophthongs on a [[vowel chart
Kalaallisut has a single diphthong, [], which is only pronounced as a diphthong at the end of a word, and is pronounced as a long [] everywhere else. Sequences of up to four vowels are allowed in Kalaallisut (and Tunumiisut), as in the word ('helpful').
Vocabulary
A few examples of words demonstrate some phonological differences between the Greenlandic languages. These include consonant/vowel cluster assimilation, the phonemic realizations of , , and , palatalization of , and other phonemic differences, which are bolded in the table below: