Doug Shares Language with Us from a 5th Grade Teacher
Hi Everyone. Chopper Chuck sends a special HOWDY to Charlie and the rest of the 109′ers! He was excited to hear all about our project. He was glad you liked his hat. A woman made it for him and he liked it so much he had her make a bunch of them in case he ever looses them.
Also, I asked Maureen your excellent question regarding the Inuit language. Actually, I learned that the people around here are called Inuvialuit. I think this might be because there are both Inuit and Gwichin ancestry. I’ll have to find out more about that. Anyway, Maureen is a teacher so I figured if anyone could give us the scoop she could- and she delivered!
The language is called Inuvialuktun and, as you implied with your follow up question, it is an oral language.
In the 1800’s the priests and missionaries who came here introduced a written version of the language. Actually two written versions were created; in this area they used the same alphabet that we use. In the Eastern Arctic they created a new alphabet called syllabics, which apparently looks like shapes and symbols. I’ll try to find a sign and take a picture for you.
Here are a few Inuvialuktun words:
ookpik (snowy owl)
quanani (thank you)
tuktu (caribou)
tuk (place where the caribou cross)
…and, speaking of priests and missions- check out one of the local churches from Tuktoyaktuk!
Here is a picture of Maureen’s Bed and Breakfast, where we stayed on this last trip to Tuk.
posted by Arctic Doug and the 109'ers at
10:52 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Doug, Maureen, Chopper Chuck, James, Sam, Terry and all the folks of our adventure.
We loved hearing about the new words. In our classsroom we speak a variety of different languages. Such as, Polish, Spanish, Bulgarian, Arabic, German, Albanian, and English. Our families have moved here from Mexico, Bulgaria, Poland, Palestine, and Alabania. Many of us fifth graders are the first kids in our families to go to American Schools. We have some words to share with you:
Polish words:
Thank you is "dzienkuje"
Caribou is "sarna"
Snow is "snieg"
Spanish words"
Thank you is "gracias"
Deer is "venado"
Bulgarian Words:
Ice is "let"
Arabic WOrds:
Thank you is "schookrun" (obviously needing arabic type, but that is not available right now)
In German, we say "Danke" for thank you.
Some of us go to school on the weekend. Anwaar goes at night. It lasts about 3 hours and we go to Polish school, Bulgarian school, and Arabic school. Many of Spanish speakers use the language at home and take classes here after school.
Get this, Doug and friends. Mrs. Risolvo is here with us this morning and she just got a big kick out of watching us. She says, there are all kinds of conversations going on while we think of words in many different languages. Its totally cool! She noticed that the kids trying out new langauges.
We would like to share a legend with you from our town's Middle School, Lincoln. Enjoy!
It is about a clown who had just come from a carnival or circus. This was way before Lincoln School was built, but it happened on the land that we build on. There was a clown who had a circus locker and the story says that he hung himself from the hook in the locker or the beam in the locker. Anwaar, thinks this is kind of a "silly, stupid" legend. It seems to be missing details. Some of us think it is real, some of us think it is not. The legend says that if you go into the bathroom by yourself you can hear the clown laughing. It haunts the six grade floor that we are about to go into next year, if Ms Randolph lets us go :)
Paulina and Jonathan were wondering how the truck got stuck in the snow if the road is mostly solid ice. How long were you stuck?
We have to write back later.
Thanks for the info.
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