[OT] Inuit? Eskimo?

[Joost Kremers]

Floyd Davidson wrote:
>>to the best of my knowledge, Inuit is the term that the original
>>inhabitants of (northern) Canada and of Greenland use for themselves. in
>>their language, Inuktitut, it is the plural of inut, which means 'man' or
>>'person'.
> 
> The singular is "inuk".

you may not believe me, but i actually knew that. just a typo... ;-)

>  It means a great deal more than just
> "man" or "person".  (It means something on the nature of
> "genuine man", as being a human with a human spirit, as opposed
> to a human which is actually an animal temporarily masquerading
> as a human for a short time.  The derivation has to do with an
> "original owner" concept relating to ones spirit.)

interesting. i wasn't aware of the cultural implications of the word...

>>the word 'eskimo' was a pejorative term used by (non-inuit) peoples living
>>further to the south on the american continent, and has the meaning 'eater
>>of raw meat'. because of this origin, it is disfavoured.
> 
> That has always been a nice sounding reason for the derogatory
> use of the term Eskimo by Canadians (blame it on Indians!);
> however, it isn't true.

like i said, it was "to the best of my knowledge"... i never heard of any
other etymology. thanks for setting this straight.

> Whatever, in Canada all Eskimo people are in fact Inuit, and it
> is considered impolite to call them anything else.  By the same
> token, the *only* word in the English language which properly
> describes all Eskimo people is the term "Eskimo".  "Inuit" does
> not, because in Alaska there are many Eskimos who are not Inuit,
> and in Siberia all Eskimos are Yupik.

i have never before heard the word 'eskimo' be used to refer to people in
siberia.

> It should also be noted that Alaska's Eskimo people are
> virtually all rather fond of the term "Eskimo".

so noted... i'll keep it in mind.

-- 
Joost Kremers
since when is vi an editor? a discussion on vi belongs in
comp.tools.unusable or something... ;-)