The language of the Inuit
Subtitle: syntax, semantics, and society in the Arctic
By: Louis-Jacques Dorais
Series: McGill-Queen's native and northern series -- 58
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Montreal; Ithaca
Language: eng; iku; kal
Number of pages: 396
ISBN-13: 9780773536463
Description: "The Inuit occupy an immense area of land - from the easternmost tip of Russia, through Alaska and Canada, to Greenland. Inuit language, history, semantics, sociology, and anthropology show a variety of distinct characteristics in different parts of this vast area. Covering an equally impressive range, The Language of the Inuit is the most comprehensive study to date of the language and the forces that have affected its development. The culmination of forty years of research, The Language of the Inuit maps the geographical distribution and linguistic differences between the Eskaleut and Inuit languages and dialects. Providing details about aspects of comparative phonology, grammar, and lexicon as well as Inuit prehistory and historical evolution, Louis-Jacques Dorais shows the effects of bilingualism, literacy, and formal education on Inuit language and considers its present status and future. An enormous task, masterfully accomplished, The Language of the Inuit is not only an anthropological and linguistic study of a language and the broad social and cultural contexts where it is spoken but a history of the language's speakers."--Pub. desc.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The Eskaleut family of languages; title: The Inuit language; title: The Nunavik Dialect of Inukitut; title: The prehistory of the Inuit language; title: Historical sources and linguistic change; title: Semantics, neology, and oral change; title: Literacy and formal education; title: Language contact and bilingualism; title: The current status of the Inuit Language; title: Conclusion : language and identity in the arctic; title: Appendices. The possessive noun declension (Nunavik Inuktitut) ; The grammatical endings of verbs (Nunavik Inuktitut) ; Categories of lexical affixes with Nunavik Inuktitut examples ; Inuit first and home languages in Inuit nunaat (Canada) in 2006.