Is Inuktitut a morphological argument language?

In the following I will discuss grammatical structures of Inuktitut, an Eskimo language spoken in the Canadian Eastern Arctic. Inuktitut is a polysynthetic language exhibiting an exceedingly elaborate verbal inflectional system including polypersonal marking. Furthermore, Inuktitut features free word order and optionality of noun phrases crossreferenced with the predicate. But Inuktitut also exhibits a number of features which seem to contradict the possibility of its being a "pronominal argument language" -- or as I would prefer to express it, a morphological argument language

An analysis of language provisions in the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement

The Nunavut Act and Nunavut Land Claims Agreement were negotiated in response to a plethora of needs and desires, as expressed by the Government of Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Nunavut Tungavik Inc., an organization representing the Inuit living in the Nunavut region. An analysis of the articles in these two documents illuminates both what these needs and desires were at the time of negotiation and what the three parties deemed to be mutually appropriate and acceptable legislation in response to these needs. One relatively minor index of such concerns is the provisions for the use of the Inuit language, Inuktitut. In this paper, we examine the clauses in the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement that deal specifically with language use in varying contexts. This systematic analysis of the language provisions reveals that although language is a minor element, it is nonetheless treated explicitly and compellingly in the two founding documents of the Nunavut Territory. The analysis further demonstrates that the application of the provisions is unambiguous and, if done conscientiously, will lead to certain intended, as well as other, perhaps unintended, results

Relating propositions : subordination and coordination strategies in a polysynthetic language

This paper discusses the relationship between the morphological structure of language and its syntactic structure. Although it is primarily a single language which is analysed in detail, namely, Inuktitut, an Eskimo language of the Canadian Eastern Arctic, the findings seem to be of general relevance

A mission for grammar writing : early approaches to Inuit (Eskimo) languages

The Inuit inhabit a vast area of--from a European point of view--most inhospitable land, stretching from the northeastern tip of Asia to the east coast of Greenland. Inuit peoples have never been numerous, their settlements being scattered over enormous distances. But nevertheless, from an ethnological point of view, all Inuit peoples shared a distinct culture, featuring sea mammal and caribou hunting, sophisticated survival skills, technical and social devices, including the sharing of essential goods and strategies for minimizing and controlling aggression

Early production of the passive in two Eastern Bantu languages

The passive construction is acquired relatively late by children learning to speak many languages, with verbal passives not fully acquired till age 6 in English. In other languages it appears earlier, around age 3 or before. Use of passive construction in young children was examined in two Eastern Bantu languages spoken in Kenya (Kiswahili and Kigiriama), both with frequent use of passive. The passive was used productively very early (2;1) in these languages, regardless of the method used to measure productivity. In addition non-actional passives, particularly rare in English and some other European languages, were seen at these early ages. The proportion of verbs that were passive varied between individuals, both in children's speech and in the input to children. Pragmatic and grammatical features of the passive in some languages have previously been suggested to drive early passive acquisition, but these features are not found consistently in the two languages studied here. Findings suggest that the relatively high frequency of input found in these languages is the most plausible reason for early productive use of the passive

Tusaaji Tusilaartuq: When the Translator must be Hard of Hearing

This article examines how translation to and from Inuktitut, the language of the Eastern Canadian Inuit, often compels the translator to create new words or explanatory phrases in the target language, in order to cope with the existing cultural and semantic gaps between most Indigenous languages and languages of wider communication. Moreover, the transcription of Inuktitut into the syllabic script also entails phonetic distortions. The article concludes that some types of translations in Inuktitut are practically useless, but that more Inuktitut oral and written texts should be translated into mainstream languages.En este artículo se analiza la manera en que la traducción desde y hacia el inuktitut, la lengua de los inuit de la región oriental de Canadá, a menudo obliga al traductor a crear nuevas palabras o agregar frases explicativas en la lengua de llegada con el fin de salvar brechas culturales y semánticas que se dan entre la mayoría de los idiomas indígenas y las lenguas de mayor difusión. Por otra parte, la transcripción del inuktitut a la escritura silábica también conlleva distorsiones fonéticas. En el artículo se concluye que algunos tipos de traducciones al inuktitut son prácticamente inútiles, mientras que hace falta que se traduzcan más textos orales y escritos del inuktitut hacia idiomas de mayor difusión.Cet article traite de la manière dont la traduction vers et à partir de l’inuktitut, la langue des Inuits de l’Arctique oriental canadien, oblige souvent le traducteur à créer de nouveaux mots ou expressions descriptives dans la langue cible, afin de tenir compte des clivages culturels et sémantiques qui existent entre la plupart des langues autochtones et les langues de grande diffusion. En ce qui concerne l’inuktitut, sa transcription en caractères syllabiques entraîne également des distorsions phonétiques. La conclusion de l’article montre que certains types de traduction vers l’inuktitut sont pratiquement inutiles, mais qu’un nombre plus élevé de textes en inuktitut, tant oraux qu’écrits, devrait être traduit en langues véhiculaires.Este artigo analisa como a tradução do e para o inuktitut, a língua dos Inuítas do leste canadense, muitas vezes impele o tradutor a criar novas palavras ou frases explicativas na língua-alvo, a fim de lidar com lacunas culturais e semânticas entre a maioria dos idiomas indígenas e línguas majoritárias. Acrescente-se que a transcrição do inuktitut para a escrita silábica também acarreta distorções fonéticas. O artigo conclui que alguns tipos de traduções em inuktitut são praticamente inúteis e que mais textos orais e escritos em inuktitut deveriam ser traduzidos para as  línguas majoritárias

Proposal to encode additional Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics in the UCS

This is a proposal to encode additional Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics in the international character encoding standard Unicode. This set of characters was published in Unicode Standard version 5.2 in October 2009. The characters were added to support Algonquian communities (Cree, Moose Cree, and Ojibway) and Dene communities (Hare Dene, Beaver Dene, Chipewyan, and Carrier)