Abstract
Language shift in Alaska threatens to replace Inupiaq, and other indigenous languages, with English unless the conditions that create the shift are reversed. The vitality of West Greenlandic and Inuktitut in the Eastern Arctic can exert a positive influence on the west if Inuit groups share published materials and increase international communication in their own language. Congruent writing systems are crucial to the process of reading what other Inuit write. A comparison of the orthographies used for Alaskan Inupiaq and West Greenlandic shows how differing systems can complicate international written exchange.
Highlights
"Reversing Knowledge Shift in the North" is the subject of this collection of papers, relating to Joshua Fishman's (1991) book title Reversing Language Shift
The term "language shift" is used by linguists to refer to the situation where a population changes or shifts from one language to another, and pretty much ail of Alaska's Native languages, like many other indigenous languages of North America, are somewhere in the process of language shift, as evidenced by the paucity of younger speakers
It is conceivable for a community to undergo language shift while changing little or none of its culture, the more usual situation for indigenous groups is probably what we see in Alaska, where replacement of Native languages by English occurs alongside sweeping changes in technology and culture
Summary
La dérive des langues en Alaska menace de remplacer l'inupiaq et d'autres langues autochtones par l'anglais à moins que les conditions l'ayant créée soient renversées. La vitalité du groenlandais de l'ouest et de l'inuktitut dans l'Arctique de l'Est pourrait avoir une influence positive dans l'ouest si les groupes d'Inuit partagent le matériel publié et accroissent la communication internationale dans leur propre langue. Des systèmes d'écriture uniformes sont cruciaux dans la lecture de ce que les Inuit s'écrivent. Une comparaison des orthographes utilisées en inupiaq de l'Alaska et en groenlandais de l'ouest montre comment différent systèmes peuvent compliquer des échanges écrits internationaux. L’utilisation des services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/
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