Syllabics (qaniujaaqpait)

The syllabic writing system is made up of characters that, for the most part, represent a consonant sound followed by a vowel sound. Inuktitut has 14 consonants, each represented by a particular syllabic character. That character is then rotated clockwise or reversed to represent Inuktitut’s three vowel sounds, i, u and a:

ᒥ = m + i	ᒧ = m + u	ᒪ = m + a
ᓂ = n + i	ᓄ = n + u	ᓇ = n + a

INUIT CULTURAL INSTITUTE (ICI)
STANDARDIZED ORTHOGRAPHY

	ᐃ	ᐅ	ᐊ	·
	i	u	a
p	ᐱ	ᐳ	ᐸ	ᑉ
	pi	pu	pa	p
t	ᑎ	ᑐ	ᑕ	ᑦ
	ti	tu	ta	t
k	ᑭ	ᑯ	ᑲ	ᒃ
	ki	ku	ka	k
g	ᒋ	ᒍ	ᒐ	ᒡ
	gi	gu	ga	g
m	ᒥ	ᒧ	ᒪ	ᒻ
	mi	mu	ma	m
n	ᓂ	ᓄ	ᓇ	ᓐ
	ni	nu	na	n
s/h	ᓯ	ᓱ	ᓴ	ᔅ
	si/hi	su/hu	sa/ha	s
l	ᓕ	ᓗ	ᓚ	ᓪ
	li	lu	la	l
j	ᔨ	ᔪ	ᔭ	ᔾ
	ji	ju	ja	j
v	ᕕ	ᕗ	ᕙ	ᕝ
	vi	vu	va	v
r	ᕆ	ᕈ	ᕋ	ᕐ
	ri	ru	ra	r
q	ᕿ	ᖁ	ᖃ	ᖅ
	qi	qu	qa	q
ng	ᖏ	ᖑ	ᖓ	ᖕ
	ngi	ngu	nga	ng
ł	ᖠ	ᖢ	ᖤ	ᖦ
	łi	łu	ła	ł

VOWEL CHARACTERS

When a vowel is not preceded by a consonant, one of the following syllabic characters is used:

ᐃ ( i )	ᐅ ( u )	ᐊ ( a )
ᐃᖃᓗᒃ	ᐅᑭᐅᖅ	ᐊᐳᑦ
iqaluk	ukiuq	aput

Vowel sounds are often lengthened (drawn out) in Inuktitut. These sounds are represented by a dot that is placed above the syllabic character. In qaliujaaqpait (roman orthography), these sounds are represented by double vowels.

ᐋᓐᓂᐊᒐᕕᑦ	ᐆᔪᖅ	ᐄᓛᒃ
aanniagavit	uujuq	iilaak

NANIIT (finals)

When a consonant is not followed by a vowel, special characters known as naniit, or ‘finals’ are used. Finals are smaller characters that appear in superscript. When writing Inuktut words, two finals never appear together.

ᐅᒃᐱᒃ

ukpik

QUIRKY CHARACTERS

Pay attention to a few syllabic characters that look like a final plus another character, but are in fact a single character:

ᕿ	ᖁ	ᖃ
qi	qu	qa

ᖏ	ᖑ	ᖓ
ngi	ngu	nga

Although ng looks like two consonants in roman orthography, linguistically, it is considered one. When ng is doubled, it is written nng in roman orthography and like this in syllabics:

ᙱ	ᙵ	ᙳ
nngi	nngu	nnga

ᐱᙳᐊᕐᕕᒃ

pinnguarvik

Another tricky character is a double q sound. In Nunavut, this sound is written:

ᖅᑭ	ᖅᑯ	ᖅᑲ
qqi	qqu	qqa

ᓄᖅᑲᕆᑦ

Nuqqarit!

In syllabics, the roman letter H is inserted for certain words borrowed from English

Hᐋᑭ

haaki

hockey