Inuktitut syllabics (Qaniujaaqpait / ᖃᓂᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ) were adapted in the mid-19th century from a writing system originally created by Methodist missionary James Evans for the Cree language. Anglican missionaries—most notably Edmund Peck (Uqammak)—modified the syllabary in the 1870s to fit Inuktitut phonetics and distributed translated texts across Baffin Island and Northern Quebec. Because the system was logical and phonetic, Inuit adopted it rapidly, passing literacy organically from person to person through letters and notes. By the 1900s, syllabics had achieved near-universal literacy across the Eastern Arctic, and today they remain a standardized, vibrant symbol of Inuit culture and communication in Nunavut and Nunavik.

Roman orthography in Inuktitut (Qaliujaaqpait) actually predates syllabics, originating in the mid-1700s when European explorers and Moravian missionaries in Labrador adapted the Latin alphabet to record Inuktitut phonetics. Because early implementations varied widely across regions—such as Greenlandic-influenced spelling in Labrador and government/missionary transcriptions in the Western Arctic—the Inuit Cultural Institute established a dual standard in 1976 that paired Roman orthography alongside syllabics. To address regional spelling inconsistencies and improve cross-community literacy, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami formally launched Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait in 2019, creating a unified, Inuit-designed Roman writing system that accurately represents all dialectal sounds across Inuit Nunangat.

Modern Inuktut literacy operates across two official scripts—Syllabics (Qaniujaaqpait) and Roman Orthography (Qaliujaaqpait)—paired alongside English in public life, education, and government. While English remains widely used for commercial and administrative tasks across Canada, standardized Roman orthography (Inuktut Qaliujaaqpait) allows Inuktut to seamlessly function in digital spaces, keyboards, and bilingual communication without losing regional dialectal pronunciation. Today, bilingual signage, government documents, and web platforms across Inuit Nunangat integrate English and Modern Inuktut side by side, ensuring cultural continuity while remaining fully accessible in a digital world.