Nunavut’s language experts looked to the past to invent new words for the digital age. “Meet the North,” a series that ventures into the lives of some of...
An interesting article about creating and adapting Inuktitut vocabulary for the digital age. Excerpt:
I’m sitting at a patio table with two of Nunavut’s foremost language experts, Leena Evic and Eva Aariak. We’re in Eva’s backyard drinking tea, eating homemade cookies and talking about the internet. And they’re about to blow my mind.
The Inuktitut word for internet, “ikiaqqijjut,” is often translated as “the tool to travel through layers.” But Eva stresses that it needs more explanation.
“The idea is that when shamans are in their trance, they can go anywhere around the world, including the moon,” Eva says. “When our elders heard there was the first man on the moon, they said, ‘They are not the first. We have been there and done that,’ because shamans have been there. Shamans would travel in a trance; if they want to check on their family far away, they can visit them and see how they’re doing.”
“While their body is right here,” says Leena.
“That’s what internet does, eh?” says Eva, “Especially with Facebook now, too, you can see how your family is doing.”
Read the whole thing.