Repulse Bay (Feb 08/06) - Abraham Tagornak has taken it upon himself to stop the many Inuktitut dialects from merging into his traditional Repulse Bay language.

The Anglican church preacher says the biggest threat to Inuit culture and traditional language is the loss of distinct dialects which separate one community from the next.

Abraham Tagornak of Repulse Bay is one of nine people given an Elders Award for their great contribution to the Inuit Heritage Trust place name project. - photo courtesy of Steven Mapsalak

For his efforts, he was recently honoured with an Elders Award from Inuit Heritage Trust.

Tagornak helped the Trust identify the Inuktitut names of various landmarks near Repulse Bay - part of a Nunavut-wide project.

"He's also a language expert who sat in on other interviews to help with language issues as they related to place names and orthography," said Ericka Chemko, project manager.

Through his son-in-law Steven Mapsalak's translations, Tagornak said he learned everything he knows through trekking on the land with his father Kovik and his mother Leah Amauyak.

"That's where he learned all his skills," said Mapsalak.

He has forever been a fan of the Inuktitut language, and has studied it for many years. His first run-in with the written word was at the age of 13, when he became involved in the Anglican ministry.

"When the schools first started in the North, he used to teach how to read and write syllabics and what Inuktitut words mean. That's how he spread the language," said Mapsalak.

He did this for seven years. Now, Tagornak is focused on dialect.

He is adjusting the Inuktitut language children are learning in the Repulse Bay school to better represent Repulse Bay dialect, rather than the dialect that stems from the Baffin region.

"He really thinks that teaching the community its own dialect is very important because it may get lost."

Although Tagornak has won awards before - one for being the captain of the first narwhal hunt in Nunavut, back in 1996, and another for his contribution to the Anglican church - he was quite surprised to hear he had won the Elders Award.

"He didn't expect it at all and was very happy and glad to have received it," said Mapsalak.