Inuit language celebration underway in Nunavut, Canada

Eye on the Arctic brings you stories and newsmakers from across the North

Inuit Language Weeks Celebration is now underway in Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut.

The annual event has been held each year as a way to promote and encourage the use of the Inuit language across the territory.

“Our language reflects the essence of who we are,” said Languages Commissioner Sandra Inutiq in a news release. “It is important we continue to learn it, use it and to remind ourselves of the importance of our language by celebrating it”

This year, the event runs February 17-28.

Inuit Circumpolar Council president on the importance of preserving  the Inuit language

Though the Inuit language, like many of Canada’s First Nations languages, remains under threat. It is still among the strongest.

In Canada’s 2011 census data on Aboriginal languages, Inuit dialects came in second among the top-three reported Aboriginal language families with 35,500 people, of those, 34,110 people reported Inuktitut as their mother tongue. The majority of those people lived Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut or in Canada’s predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec.

(The number one group was the Algonquian languages reported by 144,015. The Athapaskan languages came in third with 20,700 speakers.)

To find out more about Inuit Language Weeks, Eye on the Arctic’s Eilís Quinn spoke with Tocasie Burke, the Manager of Inuktitut Affairs in the Government of Nunavut:

Listen

Inuit language Resources from across the Arctic

Canada:

Tusaalanga, An online Inuktitut learning program

Greenland:

Greenlandic – English Dictionary, Greenland Language Secretariat

Alaska:

Iñupiaq language teaching and learning resources and tools

Losing their Words: Can a pan-Inuit dialect help preserve the Inuit language in the Arctic

Related Links:

Uniting Voices:Inuit Language in Transition, Eye on the Arctic

Cheers for Alaska native language bill, Alaska Dispatch