Petition calls to keep syllabics
Transitioning to Roman orthography sparks pushback
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, March 7, 2016
IQALUIT
An Iqaluit entrepreneur is fighting back against the proposed move toward a unified writing system based in Roman orthography.
Lori Idlout is circulating a petition in Nunavut communities to keep syllabics in the Inuktitut writing system. - photo courtesy of Lori Idlout |
"I'm not in agreement even with the consultation process that seems to be going on, because even to consult about whether to use either Roman orthography or syllabics is a waste of resources," said Lori Idlout.
The response comes after a conference bringing together translators and interpreters in Iqaluit indicated that government agencies were pushing toward a unified writing system, with the preference seeming to be Roman orthography over syllabics.
Idlout is now circulating a petition for Nunavut to continue to use and uphold Inuit-language syllabics.
She'd rather no resources go even to discussing the subject, citing much greater social needs for taxpayer money in Nunavut.
"But being forced to talk about it, my preference definitely is to keep syllabics because it's been taught to us for decades already and the effort to move it doesn't make any sense, because we have the technology and need to keep syllabics," said Idlout.
"It's already an acknowledged form of communication."
In today's age of technology, she argues, having a unified voice among Inuit is already easy.
"We're always going to need interpreters anyway because of the huge dialectical differences in the circumpolar country," she argued.
Jeela Palluq-Cloutier, executive director of the Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtit (Inuit Language Authority), said the point of a unified writing system among Inuit is to standardize educational resources and improve communication.
"Largely, when people are resisting change from transitioning from syllabics to Roman orthography, it's because they're uneducated about the needs for a unified writing system and the efforts that we're doing and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is (doing)to have better communication and better educational resources to be shared among regions."
There are nine different writing systems across the regions, she said, making it very difficult to share teaching resources and communicate.
"Everything that's produced in the region stays in the region," said Palluq-Cloutier. "There's this misconception that if we have a unified writing system that dialects will change or some dialects will disappear, which is absolutely not true. Everybody will continue to speak the way they do."
The argument about the ease of translation with technology doesn't hold up, she added, because that same technology will still allow people to use either Roman orthography or syllabics if they prefer.
"Syllabics users can easily, at the click of a button, transliterate from Roman orthography to syllabics if they choose to do so, and people that want to continue to use syllabics can absolutely go ahead and continue to use syllabics," she said.
"We're not asking people to let go of syllabics. We're saying let's produce these teaching resources because not all Inuit regions use syllabics. It's only eastern Nunavut and Nunavik that use syllabics."
Syllabics users pushing against the move to Roman orthography are not being mindful of the other Inuit regions, added Palluq-Cloutier.
"People are fearing that if we translate from syllabics to Roman orthography, that language use will change, and again that's not true," she said.
"Our efforts here are (to) strengthen language use in all the four regions. Syllabics users need to understand our efforts are for all Inuit in Canada, not just for the syllabic users."
Palluq-Cloutier pointed to Greenland, where Inuit have used Roman orthography for centuries, and said their language use is the strongest among the Inuit circumpolar world.
Idlout, though, doesn't like the Greenland argument, saying it dates back to a time when it was very difficult to communicate at all without the Internet. The situation is different now, she argues.
"They didn't at the time have efficient communication like the Internet," said Idlout. "Everything had to be mailed somehow to each community, so that example doesn't work or even fit with our life today. For them to use Greenland as an example does not equal what our reality is today."
Following the conference in Iqaluit, which stirred many discussions among translators and interpreters about the best way to go forward, Palluq-Cloutier said her organization has a December 2018 deadline to present Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami with a formal proposal about establishing a unified writing system.
