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Research | Forskning - peer review

The development of the Greenlandic written language is reviewed, and all Greenlandic literature before 1900 is discussed. A short outline of the overwhelming number of Greenlandic publications appearing in the twentieth century concludes the article. It is demonstrated that the history of Greenlandi… The development of the Greenlandic written language is reviewed, and all Greenlandic literature before 1900 is discussed. A short outline of the overwhelming number of Greenlandic publications appearing in the twentieth century concludes the article. It is demonstrated that the history of Greenlandic literature begins with catechisms and their utopian journey to heaven. Since the entire western Greenlandic society was Christianized early in the 19th century, literacy has been used for many other purposes than strictly religious or utilitarian ones, but the missionaries’ insistence on learning, using, and developing the local language for their specific purposes, and not least their invention of a literary language and their endeavors to teach Greenlanders to use it, are probably the main reasons why the Greenlandic language is still very much alive and used everywhere in contemporary Greenland. Today it is the language of literature, pop music, government, and legislation. No other Aboriginal language in the American hemisphere has a comparable status. Læs mere