Egede’s and Kleinschmidt’s spellings were based on the central West-Greenlandic dialect, spoken around Nuuk. When the Greenlandic government started work on a new orthography in 1954, not only a simplification of the spelling was desired, but they hoped to also bring the written Greenlandic closer to the other dialects.Olson, 2001.
In 1971, Oqaasiliortut – the Greenlandic Language Council – presented their reform. The new orthography doubled letters to write long vowels and replaced the “ĸ” with “q”.Petersen, 1997, p. 196. The reform was approved in 1973, and a dictionary followed in 1977.Ministeriet for Grønland, 1977. Regardless of the approval, Kleinschmidt’s orthography remained in use for a while after the reform, and most print media didn’t change spelling until the 1980s.Olson, 2001.
Ministeriet for Grønland. (1977). Ordbogi : Kalaallissuumit – Qallunaatuumut : Grønlandsk – Dansk [The Dictionary : Greenlandic – Danish].
Petersen, R. (1997). Det grønlandske sprog. In A. Karker, B. Lindgren, & S. Løland (Eds.), Nordens sprog (pp. 193–207). Novus.
Olson, C.C. (2001). Standardisering i grønlandsk og Oqaasileriffiks rolle. In Holmberg, H. (Ed), Sprog i Norden (pp. 9-16). Novus.
