Greenland. It’s a massive island with a relatively teeny-tiny population that saw a sizable boost of recognition on the world stage recently. Greenland made headlines at the end of this summer when President Trump expressed wishes to buy it from Denmark for the United States (Greenland, once a Danish colony, is now a part of the Danish Kingdom and has its own Parliament). When the prime minister of Denmark and Greenlanders reminded the U.S. president that the country is not, in fact, for sale, the plan was stopped in its tracks, but not without bringing significant media attention to the island. If in the flurry of news you found yourself realizing that you don’t actually know all that much about the languages spoken in Greenland or the people who speak them, then you’re not alone. 

We’ve got you covered. Put on your scarves and mittens, because we’re heading north for a linguistic tour of the world’s largest island. Keep reading to find out what languages are spoken in Greenland.

The Languages Spoken In Greenland And The People Who Live There

Believe it or not, the native tongue of most of Greenland’s population is a language called Greenlandic, which was made the country’s official language in 2009. If you’ve never heard of it, that might be because there aren’t that many speakers in the world. There are about 57,000 people who live in Greenland, clustered mainly in Nuuk, the capital and largest city. The rest live in the other dozen or so towns along the southern and western coast where it’s habitable (that is, not covered by an expansive ice sheet). About 50,000 Greenlanders speak Greenlandic natively. 

Known to its speakers as Kalaallisut, Greenlandic is a member of the Eskimo-Aleut language family, which means it’s closer to the Inuit languages found in Alaska and Canada than it is to neighboring Icelandic or Danish, which are both Germanic languages. It’s a polysynthetic language, which means that it can begin with a root that has affixes and suffixes piled onto it to convey entire sentences in just one long word. (Some scholars claim the longest word is more than 200 letters long.)

Greenlandic is divided into a few main varieties: West Greenlandic (the standard and most popular dialect that’s considered the country’s official language with about 44,000 speakers), East Greenlandic, South Greenlandic and North Greenlandic, also known as Polar Eskimo or the Thule dialect, which has only about 800 living speakers.

Roughly 6,000 of those Greenlanders who don’t speak Greenlandic natively are fluent in Danish. For the most part, children are raised learning three languages: English, Danish and West Greenlandic. They also learn foreign languages like French and German. 

Greenlandic is mostly limited to the confines of that huge Arctic island, but it’s worth noting that there are a couple thousand speakers who live in Denmark, too, as the two countries remain close diplomatically.

Mutual Intelligibility with Other Inuit Languages

While Greenlandic and other Inuit languages like Inuktitut (spoken in Canada) have distinct features, they maintain a significant degree of mutual intelligibility. Speakers of West Greenlandic and Inuktitut can often communicate with each other, though with some effort.

A notable example comes from Per Langgård, a proficient second-language speaker of Greenlandic, who reported that when in Nunavut (Canada), he spoke West Greenlandic while locals responded in Inuktitut, and they could understand each other quite well.

The differences between these languages are most apparent in advanced vocabulary. Greenlandic has borrowed many words from Danish (for example, using Danish numerals for numbers after 12), while Inuktitut has been influenced by English.

Cultural Identity and Language

For the Greenlandic Inuit, their language is inseparable from their cultural identity. It reflects their deep connection to the Arctic environment, with specialized vocabulary for describing ice conditions, weather patterns, and hunting techniques that have been essential for survival in the harsh northern climate.

In 2009, Greenlandic became the sole official language of Greenland, marking an important milestone in the preservation of Inuit cultural heritage. Despite the historical influence of Danish colonization, approximately 85-90% of Greenland’s population speaks Greenlandic, making it one of the most successful indigenous languages in terms of preservation and official status.

This article was updated with the assistance of AI.