Nanisiniq: Arviat History Project

Amy Owingayak: Inuktitut and Syllabics

Back in the old days Inuktitut was called Inuktut, however to make it easier for Qablunaat to understand it eventually became known as “Inuktitut”. Inuktitut is the language of Inuit and syllabics are the Inuktitut writing system. I’ll give some examples of syllabics:

• “huvi?” - whats up?
• “mutna” - ᒪᑦᓇ - thank you

The characteristics, ᒪᑦᓇ are syllabics. There are many different dialects of Inuktitut. The version of Inuktitut that Inuit speak depends on where they are from and the ethnic group that they belong to. The similarity of Inuktitut language between communities depends on how close the communities are together. For example, here in Arviat we call dried caribou meat “nipku” and the community close to us which is Rankin Inlet say it as “mikku”. As you can see, we say it differently but it means the same thing.

Syllabics, which originated from Arabic (a language from the Middle East), were adapted for Inuit use by Reverend Edmund Peck in the early 1890s-1900s. Syllabics were used to teach the bible to the Inuit in Inuktitut.

I think it is important to speak Inuktitut because it keeps our Inuit tradition and culture alive. Knowing both Inuktitut and English creates a balance in knowledge, but it is more important to know Inuktitut because in some communities Inuktitut has been completely forgotten.

Today more people are using English and mixed Inuktitut. When this happens it causes more people to lose their language. Some communities have lost their language due to mixed languages and the creation of new words. In fact, during lunch there was an elder who went on radio to talk about the Inuit language. The elder talked about how the real Inuktitut language fades when new words are introduced. She was not trying to blame anyone but instead wanted to help people understand why it is important to still use proper Inuktitut words.

To view the Inuktitut language on our site, click here.