General statistics
The Greenlandic population is a mixture of Inuit (89%) and Europeans (11%). It has a population of 55 847, of which 7 000 were born outside Greenland (mainly Danish). This population lives in ice-free areas or on coastal islands. The capital city, Nuuk, has 17 316 inhabitants. The population density is extremely low (0.03 inhabitants per km²). While the population was stable between 1998 and 2014 (between 56,000 and 57,000 people), it has been declining in recent years due to strong migration to Denmark, which is home to 15,000 people born in Greenland, i.e. 20% more than 10 years ago. The quality of life and material conditions there are reportedly better than in Greenland. The annual increase is 0.02 per cent with 800 births and 500 deaths, which gives a result of 300 people per year. Life expectancy is lower than in Europe: 69.1 years for men and 73.07 years for women. The average age is 33 years, which makes Greenlanders a decidedly young population. On a darker note, Greenland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
Kalaallisut and Tunumiisut, Eskimo-Aleut languages
Greenlandic belongs to the Eskimo-Aleut language family and has about 50,000 speakers. It is closely related to the Inuit idioms spoken in Canada and Alaska, including Inuktitut, the "Eskimo" language common to all Arctic peoples. There are three main dialects of Greenlandic: Kalaallisut or "West Greenlandic", which is the main Greenlandic dialect and has been the official language of Greenland since 2009;Inuktun orAvanersuarmiututut, which is the northernmost dialect spoken around the town of Qaanaaq (Thule); and Tunumiisutor "East Greenlandic", which is spoken around the towns of Tasiilaq and Ittoqoortoormiut. The western and eastern dialects differ from the northern dialects in vocabulary and pronunciation. Like the other languages of its family, it is a polysyllabic, polysynthetic (one word can have several meanings) and agglutinative language. There are almost no compound sentences, most of the vocabulary resulting from variations of nouns and verbs. In other words, words are composed of parts of various nouns that cluster around a radical. The word is constructed from a nominal and/or verbal radical, the meaning of which is changed at will by adding infixes and suffixes; all of which becomes a sentence. One can thus add notions as diverse as greatness, feelings, judgment and time, in a single word that can occupy a whole line in a large page. In other words, a single Greenlandic word often expresses a whole sentence, or several sentences in another language! The word is not fixed, it is alive and malleable at will to convey the maximum amount of information while remaining concentrated. You will therefore be a little less surprised by the astonishing length of some words. Its pronunciation is relatively easy for the French because of the consonants and vowels identical to our language. To the ear, Greenlandic is beautiful. It resounds with harmonious whispers and clicks.
Being Greenlandic today
From a linguistic point of view, this is not easy, as you will soon notice that not everyone speaks the official language, i.e. West Greenlandic (Kalaallisut
). For example, you will quite easily come across a Greenlander who only speaks his dialect (East, West or North Greenlandic) or a native of Nuuk who only speaks Danish. There are various reasons for this: the isolation of certain populations who do not feel the need to learn another language or the fashion in the 1970s and 1980s to put their children in a (more reputable) private Danish education system.At school, the languages learned are West Greenlandic (official language) as a first language, Danish as a second language and then English. This trilingual system can be very burdensome for East and North Greenlanders, who must also learn their own languages, namely Tunumiit oraasiat for East Greenlanders andInuktun
for North Greenlanders. These huge language efforts are a source of discouragement and often contribute to academic failure in addition to the lack of education of parents who cannot help their children after school. A situation doubly worsened by the lack of education of the new young generation of Greenlandic language teachers, who unfortunately still have too little training (unlike the former Danish teachers). In practice, Danish is still widely used in administration and higher education. It also remains the first or only language for some Danish immigrants in Nuuk and other major cities. Otherwise, other foreigners exchange in English on the spot and more and more Greenlanders start learning the language of Shakespeare. Many Greenlanders are therefore bilingual Greenlandic/Danish at least, or even trilingual with English. Therefore, don't worry, you will always find someone there to understand you!Kaffemik
Imported from Denmark, the kaffemik "with coffee" is a Greenlandic tradition that continues every time a special occasion presents itself (birth, birthday, baptism, communion, graduation, first day of school, first game caught...). While other people in the rest of the world usually go out for such an occasion, Greenlanders prefer to celebrate at home. Family, friends, neighbours and colleagues are all invited to come and celebrate the event, and the host will welcome them with a selection of food prepared by him or her, often a few days in advance. Generally speaking, guests who come and go throughout the day don't stay too long to make room for the next guests. First, they taste a selection of local dishes (musk beef, reindeer, lamb, dried whale meat, seal meat), and then one or two slices of homemade cake or raisin buns, with one or two cups of coffee or tea. In short, a kitchen full of Greenlandic specialties! Take advantage of this unique experience by joining a family for a kaffemik, often by word of mouth or otherwise via a tour operator. Everyone can be invited to the kaffemik, even those who don't know the family. Don't forget that it is customary to bring a small gift to the birthday person!
