Читать книгу An Intimate Wilderness - Norman Hallendy - Страница 9

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The Inuktitut terms and expressions used in this book were given to me by the elders of the Cape Dorset. The terms were transcribed by the Manning sisters — Annie, Nina, and Jeannie as well as Leetia Parr and Pia Pootoogook. Some terms would be considered archaic in one area of the eastern Arctic and common in another. In the Kinngait area, for example, the term Inuksuk is used while in Igloolik the equivalent term is Inuksugaq.

In the early days, I often wrote out words phonetically, as a standard orthography was still in development. Recording the names of people and places presented a challenge and still does because there are variations of their spelling in various documents. For example, is it Ashuna or Ashoona, Kiawak or Kiugak, Itiliarjuk or Itiliardjuk, Nuratta or Nurratta and so forth. After several years accumulating Inuktitut words and expressions and their meanings, I began arranging the information in English and Inuktitut in a simple database using Roman orthography. The database now provides a particularly rich collection of 1,500 Inuktitut terms and expressions many unique to Sikusiilaq (Southwest Baffin).

The database enables one to explore words and expressions arrayed in a semantic field. For example: if one searches the term caribou, 73 different words related to caribou in both English and Inuktitut are displayed. The database has another valuable feature, with the click of a button, it will produce a unique 99 page dictionary containing the Inuktitut word, the English translation of that word and it’s meaning. I considered having the entire collection of Inuktitut words and expressions in this manuscript vetted and, where necessary, altered to conform to present-day usage. I was encouraged by my Inuit mentors to leave them be, as the words accurately render the meaning ascribed to them by the Sikusiilaq elders.

I chose to write in a manner that reflected how the stories were told to me. In this way, it was my hope to bring you, the reader, into those moments of intimate conversations and experiences.