[OT] Inuit? Eskimo?

[Floyd Davidson]

Joost Kremers <joostkremers at yahoo.com> wrote:
>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... ;-)

I figured it was a typo.  It would be hard to spot though, for
anyone that doesn't have a particular interest in that
terminology.  (Everyone has trouble with Inupiaq and Inupiat
too.)

>>  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...

Yupik and Inuit are the "same" word in the two branches of the
Eskimo language.  They derive from the Proto-Eskimo word "Inuy"
(Which actually is two different words, one with a funny looking
'n' and a funny looking 'y', the other with a normal 'n' and
only the 'y' looks odd.  But I can't reproduce that, and don't
know how to say it phonetically.  In the following quote there
are also different variations of 'a', 'r', 'e', and 'y'.  I've
highlighted words with variations on the character set that
cannot be displayed.)

PE    Proto-Eskimo             (2000 years ago)
AAY   Alutiiq Alaskan Yupik    (south central Alaska)
CAY   Central Alaskan Yupik    (Yup'ik, western Alaska)
NSY   Naukan Siberian Yupik    (East Cape on Chukchi Pen.)
CSY   Central Siberian Yupik   (St. Lawrence Is. and Chukotka)
Sir   Sirnikski (Chukotka)     (Siriniki Chukotka,  extinct)
SPI   Seward Peninusla Inuit   (Seward Peninsula and Bering St.)
NAI   Northern Alaska Inuit    (Kotzebue to Canada)
WCI   Western Canadian Inuit   (Alaska to Hudson Bay)
ECI   Eastern Canadian Inuit   (Canada east of Hudson Bay)
GRI   Greenlandic Inuit        (Greenland, all dialects)

  "PE /inuy/ or *inuy* 'human being' [for Inu forms inuk, etc.,
     compare /innar-/ and /inaluk/, and for Yup yuk, etc., compare
     /ina(va)-/ and /inay-/; in possessed form (yua, /inyua/, etc.)
     this base, the orginal Eskimo ethononym, is everywhere
     attested also in the senses 'resident spirit', 'core of
     boil' and 'chick in egg'; cf. also perhaps Aleut /inisxi-X/
     'owner', ... ]
   ...
  AAY suk 'person, owner'
  CAY yuk  ... 'person, owner'
  NSY yuk 'person, male person'
  CSY yu(u)k ... 'person, male person'
  Sir yux 'person'
  SPI inuk 'person, master, owner' ...
  NAI /inyuk/ 'person, owner' [and /inyunyuk- 'form a being (egg)' ...
  WCI inuk 'person, owner'
  ECI inuk 'person, owner' [as verb = 'form (chick in egg)' and
     innu(k)- 'get inhabitants, appropriate']
  GRI inuk ... 'perons, owner' ... 'get a boil, form (chick in egg)']"

    from "Comparative Eskimo Dictionary With Aleut Cognates", 1994,
    by Fortescue, Jacobson, and Kaplan.
      
Note the similarity in all Inuit forms except NAI (and there was
much clipped out that relates to other uses of the term in NAI).
That is really interesting given that we are talking a 1000-2000
year old language that stretches from the Bering Straits all the
way to Greenland!

Yupik dialects are each distinct though, from Alutiiq in south
central Alaska to Siberia, each shows at least some small
variation, which is probably simply because those people have
been in place for probably 6-8,000 years.

>> 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.

The old claims that it means "eaters of raw meat" or something
like that are slowly being replaced in literature by studied
etymologies.  But the original was popular just because it is
catchy and easy to remember!  Of course, it also says a lot more
about our culture than it does about Eskimos, because quite
frankly no Eskimo would be insulted by the idea that they eat
raw meat (Two days ago I was given a package of raw bowhead whale
blubber, fresh from a whale...  which is ready to eat form!)  Of
course, Englishmen probably think/thought Norwegians and Swedes
were horrible for eating raw meat too...

>> 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.

There aren't very many of them, and they are all relatively
close to the the Eastern tip of Siberia.  They are all Yupik,
though the dialects they speak can't be understood by Alaskan
Yupik speakers on the mainland.  Saint Lawerence Island is only
36 miles from the coast of Siberia, and they move back and forth
between the Island and the mainland traditionally.  (The
Soviet's stopped that, but it is now at least possible again.)

>> 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.

Wanna see an Alaska Native get steamed?  Tell an Aleut he's
actually an Eskimo;  tell an Indian he's an Eskimo;  tell an
Eskimo he's an Inuit.  "Native", however, is a safe term that
any of them will be happy to hear.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson           <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd at barrow.com