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From: floyd@polarnet.com (Floyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: Inuktituk word for "polar bear?"
Message-ID: <21a7cd$12728.24@PolarNet>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 10:39:39 GMT
References: <enkeli.856644268@proffa> <19970225183500.NAA22931@ladder02.news.aol.com>
Reply-To: floyd@polarnet.com
Organization: __________
Lines: 35

AlexeiK <alexeik@aol.com> wrote:
> enkeli@proffa.cc.tut.fi (M{k{r{inen Kimberli) wrote:
>alexeik@aol.com (AlexeiK) writes:
>
>>Sean O'Connor wrote:
>>>>>Can anyone tell me what the word for "polar bear" is in Inuktituk
>>(Inuit)? It would be much appreciated.<<<
>
>>Inuktitut: nenoK. (Remember "Nanook of the North"?)
>
>What language is nannuq then?  
>
>-enk<<<
>
>Same language, different Romanized spelling. Inuktitut actually uses a
>syllabary.
>AK

The word nanuq (in any of its various spellings) is interesting
because it is a Proto Eskimo word which has not changed much in
any of the various modern Eskimo languages.  For all practical
purposes "nanuq" means polar bear in Central Yup'ik (actually
"nanuaq"), Siberian Yup'ik, Inupiat (Alaskan Inuit), both
Western and Eastern Canadian Inuit, and in Greenlandic Inuit.

The only real variation is that Alutiiq and Unangam (the "Aleut"
Eskimo languages) just don't have a word for polar bears!

[Ref: "Comparative Eskimo Dictionary", Fortescue, Jacobson, and
Kaplan, 1994]

Floyd

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson          Salcha, Alaska         floyd@tanana.polarnet.com

