Page "Inuvialuk language" Paragraph 5

The Inuvialuktun dialects are seriously endangered, as English has in recent years become the common language of the community.

Surveys of Inuktitut usage in the NWT vary, but all agree that usage is not vigorous.

According to the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre, only some 10 % of the roughly 4, 000 Inuvialuit speak any form of Inuktitut, and only some 4 % use it at home.

Statistics Canada's 2001 Census report is only slightly better, reporting 765 self-identified Inuktitut speakers out of a self-reported Inuvialuit population of 3, 905.

Considering the large number of non-Inuit living in Inuvialuit areas and the lack of a single common dialect among the already reduced number of speakers, the future of the Inuit language in the NWT appears bleak.