#inuktitut

[notdayle]

AU in the world of avatar no one speak English. As a prince zuko would know every language OR he would practice.

I would also like to think in this AU aang would also need to learn every language as well to learning the all four elements 

[la-belle-histoire]

Inuit Woman (Kootucktuck) in her Beaded Attigi. Nunavut, 1905.

[vaguegrant]

Inuktitut by Elisapie

I haven't been this excited to discover an album in months.

Inuktitut is Elisapie's fourth album, and it's nominally a cover album. Except for two differences: It's sung entirely in the Inuit language, and these 'covers' are absolutely brilliant rearrangements. Familiar songs are completely transformed, both through genius reorchestration and subtle changes that make each song sound like it was originally written in Inuit—as if no other language could really be suited for those songs.

Elisapie's vocals deserve plenty of credit too, of course. Her voice is rich and enveloping, but with a certain chilly depth that lends even the lightest of pop songs gravitas.

My favorite song is almost certainly Elisapie's entirely brass take on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", but every single track stands out and stands alone. Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Cyndi Lauper, Led Zeppelin, Blondie—Inuktitut includes and perfectly reappropriates a broad swath of popular music, fearlessly and effortlessly.

I do not know how to recommend this album to you strongly enough. It is a must-listen.

[franciscrozierofficial]

does anyone know how to translate “ma’am you’re distracting my surgeon” into Inuktitut?

best I can come up with is ᖀᖅᓱᖅᑐᖅ ᓄᔭᓕᒃ ᕿᑐᕐᖓᕐᓂᒃ ᑎᒍᒥᐊᕈᒪᔪᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑲᐅᙱᓕᐅᕈᑎᐅᒋᓪᓗᓂ (“the fluffy haired man wants to bear your child and it’s a problem”)

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk was 22 years old in 1953 when Catholic missionaries in Nunavik, the Inuit homeland in what is now northern Quebec, came to her asking for help in learning her native language.

Nappaaluk started by writing down sentences in Inuktitut syllabics, using as many words as she could find. She eventually let her mind wander and started inventing characters, imagining the life of an independent young woman named Sanaaq.

Nappaaluk ended up working on the story for more than 20 years, while also raising seven children, working as a teacher and spending summers in the family’s hunting camp.

The writing was interrupted by two trips south to receive treatment for tuberculosis — the first a five-year stint, the second for six months — during the TB epidemic of the 1950s and ‘60s. When Nappaaluk returned to Nunavik, it was rapidly changing, as southern business interests, agents for the federal government and missionaries reshaped life in the North. She worked her impressions of these changes into the story. [...]

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[phonaesthemes]

Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk was 22 years old in 1953 when Catholic missionaries in Nunavik, the Inuit homeland in what is now northern Quebec, came to her asking for help in learning her native language. Nappaaluk started by writing down sentences in Inuktitut syllabics, using as many words as she could find. She eventually let her mind wander and started inventing characters, imagining the life of an independent young woman named Sanaaq. Nappaaluk ended up working on the story for more than 20 years, while also raising seven children, working as a teacher and spending summers in the family’s hunting camp. The writing was interrupted by two trips south to receive treatment for tuberculosis — the first a five-year stint, the second for six months — during the TB epidemic of the 1950s and ‘60s. When Nappaaluk returned to Nunavik, it was rapidly changing, as southern business interests, agents for the federal government and missionaries reshaped life in the North. She worked her impressions of these changes into the story. The result was Sanaaq, the first novel written in Inuktitut syllabics in Canada. It was published in Inuktitut in 1984 and has since been translated into both French and English. It is considered a classic of Inuit literature.

[daybreaksys]

We tend to think languages of different groups within the same family are so much more difficult to learn than languages of the same group until we try to learn a language that is actually from a different family

Sure, as a Portuguese speaker, it's harder to learn English than to learn Spanish, but it doesn't compare to trying to learn Inuktitut or Japanese, than you find out English and Spanish are actually more of less at the same level of difficulty

When you start studying Chinese or Tupi you think "dang, it's not enough to replace a word for another and change word order, I have to think about the world around me in a completely different way, I have to relearn from scratch what it means to speak a language"

[willowbilly]

Hi!

Do you have any recommendations for resources on Inuit names in the mid 19th century? I’m working on a post-canon The Terror fic and I want names for OCs.

Ii, sure thing! I don't know of any Inuit name databases in modern standardized orthography, specifically, but I have some resources!

Most important is to keep dialect, orthography, and the kinship system in mind. If your OCs are Ugřuliŋmiut, Qikiqtarmiut, Natchiliŋmiut, or any other speakers of what may possibly be termed a Nattilingmiutut (sub)dialect, I'd suggest hewing toward phonetically modern Natchiliŋmiutut in the way that I think the book ᐊᒡᓗ | Aglu | The Breathing Hole does for its Inuktut starting from Act One in 1535 onward, resulting in intervocalic [h] rather than [s] and so on, as this way one can more closely rely on available resources that reflect today's modern language. If one uses modern standardized orthography, then try to standardize all the names alike into the same qaliujaaqpait, for example by representing the voiced velar nasal [ŋ] phoneme with either /ŋ/ or /ng/ throughout all names; otherwise, keep period-typical spelling for all the names, and note that you may need to “de-update” names from modern standardized spelling so that they meet the same nonstandard standard. “Aglukkaq” is spelled in modern standardized orthography; “Aglooka” is in period-typical nonstandardized orthography. Modern standardized orthographies for Inuit languages are highly phonemic, meaning that the spelling systems' graphemes more consistently correlate to the languages' phonemes, and usage of modern standardized orthography in the historical setting could imply that the POV character is better able to discern how the language actually sounds. Kinship terms would be usual in place of speaking a relative's name, and people adopted into a community would be given kinship terms or, with a name, the kinship terms that correspond to their namesake. Inuit names are all functionally unisex!

Inuit naming is a brief article by Peter Irniq. He mentions the -nnuaq and -nnuałłuk postbases as the Natchiliŋmiutut ones preferred over other Canadian dialects' -kuluk.

Janet Tamalik McGrath's master's thesis Conversations with Nattilingmiut elders on conflict and change: Naalattiarahuarnira touches on the kinship system's traditional usage.

I highly recommend going through The Netsilik Eskimos: Social Life and Spiritual Culture by Knud Rasmussen, wherein his census record as many names as he could in his own orthography, influenced by his fluency in Kalaallisut. The name “Orpingalik” from his orthography may be modernized to “Uqpiŋalik;” “Qaqortingneq” to “Qakuqti’niq;” “Uvlúnuaq” to “Uplunnuaq;” “mane·lAq” to “Maniilaq;” “kiɳmiArtɔq” to “Kiŋmiaqtuq;” et cetera.

Modern Inuktut language surnames are all derived from traditional given names, so looking at prominent Inuit figures, and at who is portrayed and credited in media such as on IsumaTV, can yield great results! Though note that some names will be dialect-specific, and many surname spellings predate standardization. Thus, surnames such as Louie Kamookak's and Sammy Kogvik's would be standardized to “Qamukkaaq” and “Qurvik” respectively.

The Natchilingmiut Uqauhingit | Natchilingmiutut Dictionary is indispensable, both for with which to double-check one's spelling, and for the nouns therein that may make for suitable names! Common nouns like tuktu “caribou,” ujarak “rock,” and kuplu “thumb” are all solid choices. If one is feeling daring, one may even combine a verb root with the intransitive indicative mood singular verb ending +ř/tuq (+řuq after vowels, +tuq after consonants) to make a noun participle. Postbases like -nnuaq (noun-to-noun; “the small Noun”) and -’ř/-rřuaq (noun-to-noun; “the big Noun”) may additionally be incorporated so long as one is confident of one's grammatical synthesizing.

To that aim, the sites uqausiit.ca and tusaalanga.ca are really very wonderful, uqausiit being a dictionary, tuhaalaŋa having a glossary with more than a few audio entries, and both holding extremely useful grammar basics on several central Canadian Inuit language varieties that include Natchiliŋmiutut! Other great sites I recommend are inuktitutcomputing.ca (grammar and some Natchiliŋmiutut in the dictionary); inuinnaqtun.ca (closely related language Inuinnaqtun resources); and inupiaqonline.com (Alaskan Iñupiatun language dictionary)! The Inuktitut Magazine archive is available online for free as well!

Everyone should also read Aglu, because I hath saith. One should cry for Aŋu’řuaq, that good bear. (Natchiliŋmiutut translation included!)

Any mistakes herein are mine; if spotted, feel free to please correct! (A variant by the qakuqhi- in the dictionary may be Qakuqhi’niq…and perhaps Qakuqhinniq would furthermore be the better standardization as I am unsure as to whose precise subdialects assimilate the latter [t] in what I presume is the ∓tit- morpheme into /’/ versus /n/, and so on…) I do hope this is helpful!

[gwendolynlerman]

Untranslatable words (part 3)

Here are part 1 and part 2. I have also made other posts with untranslatable words in Spanish and German.

Arabic: غرفة [ḡurfa] (the amount of water that can be held in one hand), يقبرن [yaqbirna] (literally “may you bury me”, wishing that a loved one outlives you because of how unbearable life would be without them)

Bantu: mbuki-mvuki (to shed one’s clothing spontaneously and dance naked in celebration)

Dutch: gezellig (cozy, nice, pleasant, sociable), struisvogelpolitiek (literally “ostrich politics”, an evasive style of politics that fails to address problems by either ignoring them or by creating a false sense of security through ineffective measures)

Finnish: poronkusema (the distance a reindeer can comfortably travel before taking a break, around 7.5 kilometers/4.7 miles)

French: feuillemorte (of the color of a faded, dying leaf), l’appel du vide (literally “the call of the void”, the inexplicable draw of the dangerous and unknown future), noceur (someone who goes to sleep late or not at all or one who stays out late to party)

German: Drachenfutter (literally “dragon fodder”, the gift a husband gives a wife when he is trying to make up for bad behaviour), Kabelsalat (literally “cable salat”, cable clutter)

Greek: μεράκι (intense passion)

Hungarian: szimpatikus (nice, likeable)

Japanese: ぼけっと [boketto] (gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking about anything), 風物詩 [fūbutsushi] (the things that evoke memories of a particular season)

Hawaiian: ʻakihi (listening to directions and then walking off and promptly forgetting them)

Hindi: जुगाड़ (jugāṛ) (a process or technique that lessens disorder in one’s life, making it easier to manage or more convenient)

Icelandic: tíma (not being ready to spend time or money on a specific thing despite being able to afford it)

Indonesian: jayus (a joke so terrible and unfunny it can’t help but make you laugh)

Inuktitut: ᐃᒃᑦᓱᐊᕐᐳᒃ [iktsuarpok] (the act of repeatedly going outside to check if someone is coming)

Italian: commuòvere (to move in a heartwarming way)

Malay: pisan zapra (the time needed to eat a banana)

Norwegian: forelsket (the indescribable feeling of euphoria experienced as one begins to fall in love)

Portuguese: nefelibata (literally “cloud-walker”, one who lives in the clouds of their own imagination or dreams or does not obey the conventions of society), saudade (a vague, constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, a nostalgic longing for someone or something loved and then lost)

Russian: разлюбить (razliubit) (to fall out of love)

Sanskrit: कल्प [kalpa] (the passing of time on a grand cosmological scale)

Scottish Gaelic: sgrìob (the peculiar itchiness that settles on the upper lip before taking a sip of whiskey)

Spanish: cotisuelto (someone who insists on wearing their shirt tails untucked)

Swedish: mångata (the roadlike reflection of the moon on the water), smultronställe (literally “place of wild strawberries”, a special place treasured for solace and relaxation, free from stress or sadness), tretår (on its own, “tår” means a cup of coffee and “patår” is the refill of said coffee, so a “tretår” is therefore a second refill)

Tagalog: kilig (to experience shivers and suffer pangs from strong emotions, usually romantically)

Ursu: گویا [goyā] (a transporting suspension of disbelief, an “as-if” that feels like reality), ناز [nāz] (the pride and assurance that comes from knowing one is loved unconditionally)

Wagiman: murr-ma (the act of searching for something in the water with only one’s feet)

Welsh: glas wen (literally “blue smile”, one that is sarcastic or mocking), hiraeth (homesickness, nostalgia, a longing for somewhere one cannot or will not return to)

Yiddish: לופֿטמענטש [luftmentsh] (literally “air person”, someone who is a bit of a dreamer)

[gennsoup]

I feel deficient in this class. My mother never speaks to me in Inuktitut anymore. Residential schools have beaten the Inuktitut out of this town in the name of progress, in the name of decency. Everyone wanted to move forward. Move forward with God, with money, with white skin and without the shaman's way. It made me wonder what I was not being taught. It made me wonder why the teachings I was receiving felt like sandpaper against my skin. It made me sad to have Inuktitut slip away. It lives under my subconscious just like the secrets of the teacher do.

Tanya Tagaq, Split Tooth

[a-dream-seeking-light]

“Huge lightning bolt in Kangiqsujuaq yesterday [on July 4, 2023] photographed by Natasha Irniq, followed by loud thunder! ᐊᖏᔪᖅ ᖃᐅᒻᒪᓚᒃ ᑲᖏᕐᓱᔪᐊᒥ ᐃᑉᐸᓴᖅ ᐊᑦᔨᓕᐊᕕᓂᖅ ᓇᑖᓴ ᐃᕐᓂᒧᑦ, ᑭᖑᓂᐊᒍᑦ ᓂᐸᕆᑦᑐᕕᓂᖅ” --Alec Gordon/CBC Tuttavik

Here are both unedited shots from the photographer’s original FB post: 

Natasha Irniq:  Wow  kallialukainatuq

Also on FB is a link to her video of the event.  

Here’s an interview from CBC Tuttavik aired on July 5, 2023. 

And finally here is a reddit thread in which a theory is discussed that most likely explains this as an optical camera effect caused by its horizontally rolling shutter.   

[anakinsafterlife]

Every once in a while, something nice happens.

[slow-burn-sally]

Something I hadn't considered about The Terror and the Franklin Expedition before reading Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson. We think of the Arctic as this insanely unpleasant and forbidding place for Franklin's men, while the Inuit felt relatively comfortable and safe, with their igloos and well designed suits, gloves and hoods made from thick animal hides and furs. In reality, while the Inuit were many times more well equipped to survive comfortably in the Arctic, there were still bad winters where lots of Inuit people lost their lives due to starvation, and extreme, cold-related illnesses. Some winters, it got so bad that they would leave their newborn children out in the cold to die of exposure because there wasn't enough food to feed another mouth. The Arctic wants everyone dead. The Inuit understood this intimately, and respected it, whereas Franklin's men did not, but the cost of their understanding was profound.

[linguisticillustrations]

List of relexifications in Inuit languages and Yupik due to modern language contact.

Abbreviations:

WG = West Greenlandic

CSY = Central Siberian Yupik

CAY = Central Alaskan Yupik

ECI = Eastern Canadian Inuktitiut

AI = Alaskan Inupiaq

Berge, A. & Kaplan, L. (2005). Contact-induced lexical development in Yupik and Inuit languages. Études/Inuit/Studies, 29(1-2), 285–305. https://doi.org/10.7202/013946ar

[helleniclanguageboy]

Inuktitut in Avatar

While watching the new Avatar, I was like fascinated that they put Inuktitut syllabics in the show. I can’t say I’ll be able to compare a translation to the show, but I did my best to piece out the transliteration

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Nunavut's language laws are being reviewed for the first time since some of them came into force 15 years ago.  The Official Languages Act, which became law in 2013 and the Inuit Language Protection Act, first signed into law in 2008, mandate the use of Inuktut, French and English in the territory. The legislation is supposed to be reviewed every five years, but hasn't been until now.  Different groups presented their suggested amendments to both laws last week in the legislative assembly during a four-day televised hearing before the standing committee on legislation.  Joelie Kaernerk, Nunavut's newly sworn-in minister of languages, told the committee that one of his department's suggested amendments would require the federal government to comply with Inuit language laws. [...]

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Tagging: @politicsofcanada