#inuttitut

[akumik]

I don’t think I made a post about this before but my url is the Inuktitut word “AKumik”, which means “Go with the wind”. 

[yaaurens]

Maybe it’s just me being sad about Gord, but this version of Ahead By a Century made me tear up.

[whiteinukinafrica]

Inuktitut Word of the Day

Today's Inuktitut word of the day will rather be a few words and some linguistic contextualization. The dialect of Inuktitut spoken by my ancestors and relatives is called “Inuttitut". There are approximately 4000 people of Labrador Inuit descent and only 550 report Inuttitut as their mothertongue.

The writing system for Inuttitut was developed by the Morvarian missionaries who settled on the Labrador coast.

The letters in the alphabet are: Â A E F G H I J K L M N O P Κʻ R S T U V W â a e f g h i j k l m n o p ĸ r s t u v w

Pronounciation-wise the special characters are pronounced as follows: â = aa e = ii o = uu ĸ = q

This script is quite different to other dialects of Inuktitut that use their own alphabet. Additionally, the remoteness of Labrador from other Inuit communities, and its unique history of cultural contacts have made it into a distinct dialect with a separate literary tradition.

Here are the names of the some of the communities in and near Nunatsiavut in Inuttitut: Naini (Nain), Hopedale, Maqûvik (Makkovik), Ukkusitsalik (Davis Inlet), Vaali (Goose Bay–Happy Valley), Nutâk (Nutak), Hebron, Tikirarsuarusik (Rigolet), Northwest River. Ukkusitsalik, Nutâk, Hebron are all communities which have been resettled. Ukkusitsalik and Northwest River are primarily Innu communities, the other major tribe that occupies the land now known as Labrador.

The name of the Inuit landclaim/territory in Labrador is Nunatsiavut. Pronunciation is kind of like: NOO-NAt-seeya-vooT. At least, that is the way I pronounce it. And I am happy to be corrected. It means "our beautiful land."

There are not many resources for the Inuttitut specifically so I will first exhaust the resources for Inuttitut specifically and then move on to words from Inuktitut more broadly.