Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Cambridge Bay (Mar 11/02) - A new Inuinnaqtun dictionary scheduled to hit the shelves in the next few weeks is a small step in preserving the Inuit dialect in the Kitikmeot, says the dictionary's editor.

Betty Harnum, a freexlance linguist living in Yellowknife, said: "People are really asking for that kind of stuff. A lot of youth don't know (the dialect) that well.

Only elders know all the words and they won't be with us that much longer."

The 2000-word dictionary, published by Outcrop Publishing, will be out in the next few weeks.

The book is the final part of a project begun in 1998.

The Kitikmeot Heritage Society commissioned Harnum and Gwen Ohokak in Cambridge Bay and Margo Kadlun-Jones in Edmonton, to compile a dictionary, storybook and a workbook for $24,000.

Last year, the society received $10,500 from Nunavut Arctic College to complete the dictionary.

English a language 'mobster'

The trio based their work on an Inuvialuit publication from the Committee for Original Peoples Entitlement called Kangiryuarmiut Uqauhingita Numikittitdjutingit dictionary.

The dictionary, published in the 1980's, featured three dialects. One dialect from Holman resembled the Kitikmeot version.

The trio typed the dictionary into a computer and used it as a framework.

"It was a bit tedious," said Ohokak in an interview from Cambridge Bay. "We worked on it through trial and error."

They enlisted the help of two Cambridge Bay elders--Mabel Angulalik and Frank Analuk--to ensure accuracy.

Harnum said minority languages are on the defensive around the world and the dictionary ensures at least one of them survives. "Minority languages are disappearing in the world and English is a big mobster that wipes out minority languages," said Harnum. "Language is one of the best representations we have of what goes on in people's minds, how they think and how they organize the world.

"A lot is represented by different words," she said.

"When the words disappear, those traditions and understanding disappear along with it."