Naskapi language

See also: Naskapi
Naskapi
ᓇᔅᑲᐱ naskapi,
ᐃᔪᐤ ᐃᔨᒧᐅᓐ iyuw iyimuun
Native toCanada
RegionSt'aschinuw
(Quebec, Labrador)
EthnicityNaskapi
Native speakers
1,230 (2016 census)[1]
Eastern Cree syllabics
Language codes
ISO 639-3nsk
Glottolognask1242
Linguasphere62-ADA-ba
Naskapi is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
PeopleNaskapi Iyuw
ᓇᔅᑲᐱ ᐃᔪᐤ
LanguageNaskapi Iyuw Iyimuun
ᓇᔅᑲᐱ ᐃᔪᐤ ᐃᔨᒧᐅᓐ
CountrySt'aschinuw
ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ

Naskapi (also known as ᐃᔪᐤ ᐃᔨᒧᐅᓐ/Iyuw Iyimuun in the Naskapi language) is an Algonquian language spoken by the Naskapi in Quebec and Labrador, Canada.[3] It is written in Eastern Cree syllabics.

The term Naskapi is chiefly used to refer to the language of the people living in the interior of Quebec and Labrador in or around Kawawachikamach, Quebec. Naskapi is a "y-dialect" that has many linguistic features in common with the Northern dialect of East Cree, and also shares many lexical items with the Innu language.

Although there is a much closer linguistic and cultural relationship between Naskapi and Innu than between Naskapi and other Cree language communities, Naskapi remains unique and distinct from all other language varieties in the Quebec-Labrador peninsula.

  1. ^ "Language Highlight Tables, 2016 Census - Aboriginal mother tongue, Aboriginal language spoken most often at home and Other Aboriginal language(s) spoken regularly at home for the population excluding institutional residents of Canada, provinces and territories, 2016 Census – 100% Data". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Government of Canada, Statistics. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). "Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2022-10-15. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
  3. ^ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: