
The Language of the Inuit: Volume 58
Syntax, Semantics, and Society in the Arctic
Louis-Jacques Dorais(Author)
McGill-Queen's University Press
Published on 28. January 2010
Book
Hardback
397 pages
978-0-7735-3646-3 (ISBN)
Description
The culmination of forty years of research, The Language of the Inuit maps the geographical distribution and linguistic differences between the Eskaleut and Inuit languages and dialects. Providing details about aspects of comparative phonology, grammar, and lexicon as well as Inuit prehistory and historical evolution, Louis-Jacques Dorais shows the effects of bilingualism, literacy, and formal education on Inuit language and considers its present status and future. An enormous task, masterfully accomplished, The Language of the Inuit is not only an anthropological and linguistic study of a language and the broad social and cultural contexts where it is spoken but a history of the language's speakers.
Reviews / Votes
"Anyone who works on the Eskimo-Aleut languages professionally (linguists, translators, language teachers, etc.) should buy this book. Anyone who does research or policy affecting the north should also buy it, even if they study only ice. In addition, I would recommend it to all Canadian families. Louis-Jacques Dorais is Canada's foremost academic authority on the Inuit language, and this book is clearly a labour of love and an example for the future. No other book even begins to approximate the wealth of information it contains about one of the Arctic's most internationally known languages." Alana Johns, University of Toronto, Etudes Inuit Studies "Louis-Jacques Dorais shows why he is a leading specialist in The Language of the Inuit. It is a state-of-the-art summary of the field and balanced throughout for a broad audience. In both its scope and presentation there is certainly no other comparable work." Michael Fortescue, Institute for Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen "Intended for a broad audience, this book succeeds marvelously as an accessible introduction to the most widespread subgroup of Eskimoan languages--the Inuit dialects spoken from northern Alaska across the Canadian Arctic to Greenland...An essential introduction to one of the most tenacious language families of the Americas...Highly recommended." E. J. Vajda, Western Washington UniversityMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Montreal
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
6 maps
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7735-3646-3 (9780773536463)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
08/2014
MQUP
€64.49
Available for download

E-Book
01/2010
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€37.99
Available for download
Person
Louis-Jacques Dorais is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Universite Laval.
Content
Maps and Tables; Preface Introduction; 1 The Eskaleut Family of Languages; 2 The Inuit Language; 3 The Nunavik Dialect of Inuktitut; 4 The Prehistory of the Inuit Language; 5 Historical Sources and Linguistic Change; 6 Semantics, Neology, and Oral Literature; 7 Literacy and Formal Education; 8 Language Contact and Bilingualism; 9 The Current Status of the Inuit Language; 10 Conclusion: Language and Identity in the Arctic APPENDICES: 1 The Possessive Noun Declension (Nunavik Inuktitut); 2 The Grammatical Endings of Verbs (Nunavik Inuktitut); 3 Categories of Lexical Affixes with Nunavik Inuktitut Examples; 4 Inuit First and Home Languages in Inuit nunaat (Canada) in 2006 Notes; References; Index