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The Inuit languages have an age-old oral tradition but they had no writing system and until today there are no common standards for writing Inuktitut or Inupiaq. Inuktitut calligraphy was invented in the late 19th century and it was not an Inuk who created it. In fact a missionary called James Evans wanted to make it possible for the Inuit to read the bible, first in the Hudson Bay and then in a Cree settlement where he was stationed. He tried to develop a writing system, first based on Latin orthography but this attempt failed. He therefore created a syllable script based on Pitman shorthand with originally nine symbols that could be drawn in four different orientations. It is said that a reverend called Edmund Pick later adopted and introduced Evans’ syllabary to the Inuit at Hudson Bay, who easily adopted it and from where it spread to Ungava Bay and the Northwest Territories. The syllabary named qaniujaaqpait today consists of about 60 symbols. There is some literature written and published in qaniujaaqpait.
It is used by the Inuit of Eastern Canada, in Nunavut. The Inuit of Labrador, Alaska, Northwest Territories and Greenland write in Roman orthography.
The Inuit Circumpolar Conference, an organization which represents around 150,000 Inuit of the whole Arctic region attempts to establish a standardised alphabet for all Inuit.
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