Date: Monday, September 28th 2020
Time: 6:0
0pm–8:00pm CDT
Location: Online Event
Register Here
Please join us for
the virtual launch of Louis-Jacques Dorais’s Words of t
he Inuit: A Semantic Stroll through a Northern Culture. Christopher Tro
tt, editor of the Contemporary Studies on the North series, will moderate.<
br />
A Q&A will follow the presentation. Send questions or commen
ts to This email addr
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t..
About the Book
Words of the Inuit is an important compendium of Inuit culture illustrat
ed through Inuit words. It brings the sum of the author’s decades of experi
ence 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 unit
s of meaning that add up to convey a larger sensibility. Dorais’ lexical an
d 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 herit
age and identity. An appendix on the polysynthetic character of Inuit langu
ages includes more detailed grammatical description of interest to more spe
cialist 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; hum
ans and spirits; family, kinship, and naming; the human body; and socializi
ng with other people in the contemporary world. It concludes with a reflect
ion on the usefulness for modern Inuit—especially youth and others looking
to strengthen their cultural identity —to know about the underlying meaning
s embedded in their language and culture.
Louis-Jacques Dorais is a Professor Emerit
us in the Department of Anthropology, Université Laval. Since the mid-sixti
es, a period of time when he became fluent in Inuktitut, he has travelled a
lmost yearly to Inuit communities in Canada, Alaska and Kalaallit Nunaat (G
reenland), in order to conduct research and teach Inuit linguistics to loca
l students.
Christopher Trott has conducted research with Inuit
on Baffin Island focussing on the areas of kinship and social organization.
He currently teaches in the Native Studies Department at the University of
Manitoba and is the Warden and Vice-Chancellor of St John’s College.
University of Manitoba Press
301 St. John’s
College
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2M5
Canada