Yellowknife (Mar 10/03) - Many factors will decide official language status for Nunavut's Inuktitut, English and French speakers.

Language Commissioner of Nunavut Eva Aariak has been touring the territory, often accompanying the special legislative assembly committee created to review the Official Languages Act, so she can recommend how it should proceed on legislation for the territory.

Some Inuit like syllabics, some like Roman orthography when writing. Official Languages Commissioner Eva Aariak says these are among the determining factors when deciding on official language status. - Chris Woodall/NNSL photo

News/North: Where are we at as far as Nunavut getting its own Official Languages Act?

Eva Aariak: Right now, the special committee is at its final stages of consultation. They will start to produce their final report sometime this spring.

N/N: I imagine one of the most difficult things is trying to please everybody. I'm sure there are a lot of distinct dialect speakers who all feel they should have official language status. What are some of the hurdles you have to overcome to decide who's included and who isn't?

EA: In every response we are getting from the public, they are wishing to have Inuktitut as the official language, as well as French and English as the two other official languages.

Every comment wants Inuktitut to play a major role in the makeup of Nunavut. That it becomes more visible and used and taught in all schools. In Nunavut we have different dialects of which some are a little more prominent than the others. Innuinaqtun is an example. I can converse with the elders in Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay very comfortably and they can understand me, but when it comes to writing it, that is a little bit different.

They have one writing system that is Roman lettering, whereas in the other places in Nunavut we have a dual writing system: Roman lettering and syllabics.

N/N: Do people speaking different dialects use syllabics differently?

EA: Inuit do not have a writing system that they can say they owned from generations ago. Inuktitut writing system only came about in the late 1800s. It was introduced by the missionaries who wanted to make sure aboriginals such as Cree could understand and read the Bible.

The system was Pitney shorthand, but modified to suit the language they were working on. From there, they moved on to Inuktitut.

The level of acceptability of writing Inuktitut words the way they are said was limited in the beginning, because whoever developed the system did not have an ear for the language.

In the early 1970s, Inuit leaders decided to do something about this. They struck a language commission to come up with a system that includes most of all the sounds of Inuktitut. From that point on it was taught in the schools.

But what that meant was that whoever was not in schools then, really did not get the full benefit of learning the new system.

N/N: Not to have an Inuit writing system must have been a real stumbling block to learning anything for people who didn't naturally speak English.

EA: The majority of the elders didn't really like the new writing system. But the leaders didn't listen to the elders -- as they are supposed to -- because they knew it was not an Inuit "thing," so they knew there was a lot of room to improve it.

When they were doing their revision of the writing system, people of Kugluktuk did not opt to follow the standardized writing system.

So the majority of the elders of the Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk region are using the old writing system. But the younger generation as well as some teachers in that area have adopted the standardized writing system because they cite it as beneficial to keeping their language the way it is said.

Once the students started reading and writing in it and showing their parents in their home, the same people who did not like the writing system are now, even today, saying they understand the benefits of it.

Before, they didn't want to change the word of God as it was written in the Bible they were reading.

N/N: With all the bureaucracy introduced into Nunavut to make it a viable territory, does a more sophisticated writing system allow Inuit to take more control of those institutions?

EA: When you start using the standardized writing system, you can write any dialect the way it is said. That's the beauty of the new writing system.

N/N: It must be an evolving work. With any dictionary, as words come into use they become standardized in usage. Is this something that has to be taken into consideration when people talk of preserving the language?

EA: And enhancing the language. Most definitely! The Inuktitut language in our traditional way of life was complete, if I may say so.

To describe the environment, the land, the sky, the stars -- there was a word for it and everything else to sustain our lives at the time, before Europeans came up here.

But today, our Inuktitut language is somewhat limited with the southern technologies and anything that was not around in traditional life.

Our government has stated that the Inuktitut language will be the working language of the government by the year 2020. A lot will have to happen before that can actually come to be realized, because we need to develop words in Inuktitut to be on a par with English vocabulary in the workplace.

Right now we throw in a lot of English words because when it comes to modern stuff or any financial or technical terms, you know, we don't have many of those in Inuktitut.

But that's not to say it's not possible. It's very, very easy to come up with terminology that we would use in our Inuktitut language today. I have recommended to the legislative assembly that an Inuktitut language committee or commission be formed of people with varying expertise, such as elders, experts in the language and people with different dialects. They would come up with terms that we need to develop and enhance Inuktitut language in society and the workplace.

That's not to say we have to do away with our dialects. No, that's not the case.

Each dialect in each community is so dear to each and every one of us living in those communities that I don't think they will let that happen. And they shouldn't let that happen!

N/N: If the South is anything to go by, local dialects always survive. No matter where you go in Canada -- English may be English, but if you listen to Newfoundlanders and to people in British Columbia, they have different words for different things.

EA: Oh definitely. Although, even today, I have noticed that some communities have adopted terminology or dialect from another community. If they're happy with the word and they think it's good, they use it.

It's part of the living language.

N/N: As far as English and French go, where are they as official languages? From the last public meeting, I got the general feeling that English has to be there because it is still -- for good or ill -- the language of work, although there are people who want it less to be so. But French is in an even more of a minority case. Does it still warrant being an official language?

EA: As long as we are part of Canada we have no choice. The francophone population are concerned about the level of services they are receiving right now. They have every right to receive those services in their language, as stated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of Canada.

N/N: Does knowing that Inuit can go anywhere in Nunavut and can get all the services they desire in their own language build up self- confidence as a people?

EA: Oh most definitely. There are many people in the working world who are quite capable of using their language but they feel they can't. They feel there are certain linguistic barriers at this point.

Some people will not hire you if you do not speak English. If you are unilingual Inuktitut you will find it much harder to find a job, even though you are very capable of doing the job.

In terms of defining who you are, in terms of building your pride within yourself and your children and your community, Inuktitut language is very important.