My Mother Tongue
SOCIETY My mother tongue Aviaq Johnston y name is Greenlandic, but I am not. I am upon him, “You know what? I am Inuk, see? Hear a 20-year-old Inuit girl from a small com- me speaking my munityM in Nunavut called Igloolik. My mother is an his own Inuktitut TV show on APTN that addresses Inuk born on the land in Nunavik and she grew up the issues of language and youth. in Quaqtaq, Quebec. My father is a Qallunaaq — a My sister understands Inuktitut better than I do, though she chooses not to speak it. I think it’s Quebec. He has been living in the North, always because of pronunciation. As I was growing up, I surrounding himself with Inuit, for over 30 years. had trouble pronouncing certain Inuktitut words, He has lived in Inukjuak, Kimmirut, Pond Inlet, particular throaty consonants. I couldn’t decipher Cape Dorset, Igloolik, and many other places in the North, but for now he resides in Iqaluit. My mother and I managed to make something that could be understands and speaks many of the Inuktitut dia- explained simply into harder and more complicated lects, including a bit of Greenlandic, while my father words and sentences that made absolutely no sense. has learned Inuktitut in the years he has lived in the For example, say I was asking you to go and grab Arctic. It is a daily part of our lives. something for me, rather than saying, “Taanna I, however, lost the language when I was in my adolescence. mouth and brain and say something like, “Can you I grew up with two dialects: the Igloolik dialect, go and get that thingy over there, not in that spot which corresponds with other dialects in North Baf- but in the other spot.
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