Words of the Inuit: A Semantic Stroll through a Northern Culture

by Louis-Jacques Dorais, Lisa Koperqualuk (Preface)

"Words of the Inuit" is an important compendium of Inuit culture illustrated through Inuit words. It brings the sum of the author’s decades of experience and engagement with Inuit and Inuktitut to bear on what he fashions as an amiable, leisurely stroll through words and meanings. Inuit words are often more complex than English words and frequently contain small units of meaning that add up to convey a larger sensibility. Dorais’ lexical and semantic analyses and reconstructions are not overly technical, yet they reliably evince connections and underlying significations that allow for an in-depth reflection on the richness of Inuit linguistic and cultural heritage and identity. An appendix on the polysynthetic character of Inuit languages includes more detailed grammatical description of interest to more specialist readers. Organized thematically, the book tours the histories and meanings of the words to illuminate numerous aspects of Inuit culture, including environment and the land; animals and subsistence activities; humans and spirits; family, kinship, and naming; the human body; and socializing with other people in the contemporary world. It concludes with a reflection on the usefulness for modern Inuit―especially youth and others looking to strengthen their cultural identity ―to know about the underlying meanings embedded in their language and culture. With recent reports alerting us to the declining use of the Inuit language in the North, "Words of the Inuit" is a timely contribution to understanding one of the world’s most resilient Indigenous languages.

Genres: Language, Nonfiction, Linguistics

344 pages, Paperback

Published September 18, 2020

Reviews

[Joe Hay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book - brilliantly conceived and written with charm. It's a parallel survey of both culture and language, taking the reader quite deep into the worldview and life rhythm of the Inuit. Along the way, it also serves as a meditation on the relationship between culture and language in general.

Dorais certainly knows his stuff, but it never gets too far into the weeds for non-academics to follow or stay interested. I feel some of the more abstract explanations were a little unnecessary, but my general impression is that this book was fun to read and very informative - I will be reading again.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in either the Inuit specifically or in the connections between language and worldview in general.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really spoke to my interest in language - a look at the language of the Inuit from a structural/meaning based perspective which really reflects the culture of the language. a definite recommendation for anyone who is interested in languages or wants to learn more about inuit culture.