Written Inuktitut in the spotlight
Task force plans community consultations this year; language summit in 2015
Miranda Scotland
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 31, 2014
OTTAWA
A task force charged with exploring the development of a standardized Inuit language writing system met in Ottawa last week to continue its work.
Members of Atausiq Inuktut Titirausiq task group and language experts discussed the differences between existing Inuktitut writing systems.
They also developed questions to be put to the public at community consultations, which are set to begin later this year.
The group is interested to know how often Inuit are writing in Inuktitut and how much importance they place on the language when putting pen to paper, said task force member and Nunavut resident Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) formed the task force in 2012, a year after the National Strategy on Inuit Education was released. One of the recommendations in the strategy is to develop a standardized Inuit writing system. Representatives from across Inuit Nunangat are involved in the process.
The group has made some progress toward its goal but there is still a lot of work to do, said Arreak-Kullualik.
"It's going to take a few more years I believe. If it's taken this long just to gather the information, compile the information, do research about the orthography and the history of Inuit language in Canada, then I think it's going to take a few more years until we can finally determine and identify what we want to do," she said. "But I think we all understand the urgency of keeping our language."
A standardized writing system with common terminology, grammar and spelling would boost bilingual education because the four regions could work together to produce common educational materials.
It will also make it easier to translate English documents, such as court documents, because there won't be confusion about what dialect to use.
However, despite the perceived benefits, the task force expects some resistance to the idea.
"I think the biggest challenge is shifting attitudes, keep an open mind and have debates about our orthography and what directions we really want to go," said Arreak-Kullualik. "Should we keep it roman orthography or should we keep the syllabics, should we keep both or create a whole new one to be used in all of Canada among the Inuit regions?"
The task force has been discussing ways to make learning Inuktitut easier for not only first language learners but second and third language learners. They haven't come up with any concrete ideas but it's a priority, said Arreak-Kullualik.
"If we want to expect non-Inuit to learn Inuktitut, and if we want to be served in Inuktitut, we have to be innovative and very creative to make Inuktitut easier to learn and understand and to be used," she said. "We have to make it cooler to learn Inuktitut and we have to make younger people feel awesome about being able to speak our language."
Today's youth are facing many obstacles in holding on to their culture, said Johannes Lampe of Nunatsiavut. The education system is mostly in English and French and it's the same with television shows, games and the Internet.
"I believe we have to give direction to the leadership, to those who are able to help the Inuit regions," said Lampe. "There are Inuit out there who have a strong desire to protect and preserve Inuktitut and we have to find those people to look for their help."
Harry Qulugak of Nunavik said he hopes to see large numbers at the consultations and the National Inuit Language Summit in the fall of 2015.
"I see great things happening in (Inuit Nunangat) and I want to encourage every native, Eskimo, Inuk that speak Inuktitut or don't speak it to participate in expressing their values."
