Iñupiat is the plural word for Northern Eskimos and the name of the language spoken by these people. Iñupiaq is the singular word for an Eskimo person of this region.

For Iñupiaq people, language is intrinsic to culture and traditions. The Iñupiaq language consists of Inuit-Iñupiaq families of languages spoken from Siberia (Yup'ik) to Greenland (Iñupiaq). Many dialects are understandable to speakers of neighboring dialects. The Inuit language family is a subfamily of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. In Alaska a linguistic division depends on whether the speakers consider themselves Inuit or Yuit (Iñupiat or Yup’ik). The geographic linguistic and cultural boundary seems to occur close to the Yukon River.

The language, in several dialects, is spoken by 3,500 people out of an ethnic population of 8,000, according to the Stanford University Rosetta Project. Because the Iñupiaq were literally forced to learn English in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, most speakers are over 30 years of age. Present day efforts to include linguistic curriculum in schools, however, is gradually increasing the numbers of speakers and refreshing links to cultural traditions.