Qaniujaaqpait

Inuktitut syllabics
A bilingual stop sign in Nunavut displaying text in both Inuktitut syllabics and the English Latin alphabet. ᓄᖅᑲᕆᑦ the Inuktitut transliterates as nuqqarit.
Type	Abugida
Languages	Inuktitut
Time period	1870s–present
Parent systems	Cree syllabics Canadian Aboriginal syllabics Inuktitut syllabics
Direction	Left-to-right
ISO 15924	Cans, 440
Unicode alias	Canadian Aboriginal
Unicode range	Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, U+1400–167F (chart)

Inuktitut syllabics (Inuktitut: ᖃᓂᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ [qaniujaːqpaˈit] or ᑎᑎᕋᐅᓯᖅ ᓄᑖᖅ [titiʁauˈsiq nuˈtaːq]) is an abugida-type writing system used in Canada by the Inuktitut-speaking Inuit of the territory of Nunavut and the Nunavik region in Quebec. In 1976, the Language Commission of the Inuit Cultural Institute made it the co-official script for the Inuit languages, along with the Latin script.

Qaniujaaqpait derives from the root qaniq meaning mouth; its opposite is Qaliujaaqpait (ᖃᓕᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ) meaning Latin script (derived from qaliit, a word describing the markings or the grain in rocks). Titirausiq nutaaq meaning new writing system is to be seen in contrast to Titirausiit nutaunngittut (ᑎᑎᕋᐅᓰᑦ ᓄᑕᐅᓐᖏᑦᑐᑦ), the old syllabics used before the reforms of 1976.

The first efforts to write Inuktitut came from Moravian missionaries in Greenland and Labrador in the mid-19th century using Latin script. The first book printed in Inuktitut using Cree script were selections from the Gospels in the dialect of the Inuit of Little Whale River (ᒋᓴᓯᑊ ᐅᑲᐤᓯᐣᑭᐟ, Jesus' words), printed by John Horden in 1855–56 at Moose Factory for Edwin Arthur Watkins to use among the Inuit at Fort George. In November 1865, Horden and Watkins met in London under Henry Venn’s direction to adapt Cree syllabics to the Inuktitut language. In the 1870s, Edmund Peck, another Anglican missionary, started printing according to that standard. Other missionaries, and later linguists in the employ of the Canadian and American governments, adapted the Latin alphabet to the dialects of the Mackenzie River delta, the western Arctic islands and Alaska.