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Iñupiaq language

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Iñupiaq or Inupiaq ( / ɪ ˈ n uː p i æ k / ih- NOO -pee-ak , Inupiaq: [iɲupiaq] ), also known as Iñupiat , Inupiat ( / ɪ ˈ n uː p i æ t / ih- NOO -pee-at ), Iñupiatun or Alaskan Inuit , is an Inuit language , or perhaps group of languages, spoken by the Iñupiat people in northern and northwestern Alaska , as well as a small adjacent part of the Northwest Territories of Canada. The Iñupiat language is a member of the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan language family , and is closely related and, to varying degrees, mutually intelligible with other Inuit languages of Canada and Greenland. There are roughly 2,000 speakers. Iñupiaq is considered to be a threatened language, with most speakers at or above the age of 40. Iñupiaq is an official language of the State of Alaska, along with several other indigenous languages.

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49-601: The major varieties of the Iñupiaq language are the North Slope Iñupiaq and Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq dialects. The Iñupiaq language has been in decline since contact with English in the late 19th century. American territorial acquisition and the legacy of boarding schools have created a situation today where a small minority of Iñupiat speak the Iñupiaq language. There is, however, revitalization work underway today in several communities. The Iñupiaq language

98-466: A consonant cluster. All Iñupiaq dialects have three basic vowel qualities : /a i u/. There is currently no instrumental work to determine what allophones may be linked to these vowels. All three vowels can be long or short, giving rise to a system of six phonemic vowels /a aː i iː u uː/. Long vowels are represented by double letters in the orthography: ⟨aa⟩, ⟨ii⟩, ⟨uu⟩. The following diphthongs occur: /ai ia au ua iu ui/. No more than two vowels occur in

147-578: A federally recognized tribe , the Alaska Native Village of Kivalina, sued ExxonMobil , eight other oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco on February 26, 2008, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence. The lawsuit estimated the cost of relocation at $ 400 million. The suit

196-410: A household in the village was $ 30,833, and the median income for a family was $ 30,179. Males had a median income of $ 31,875 versus $ 21,875 for females. The per capita income for the village was $ 8,360. About 25.4% of families and 26.4% of the population were below the poverty line , including 27.9% of those under age 18 and 30.0% of those age 65 or over. Due to severe sea wave erosion during storms,

245-577: A lagoon at the mouth of the Kivalina River . It lies 130 km (81 mi) northwest of Kotzebue . According to the United States Census Bureau , the village has a total area of 3.9 square miles (10 km ), of which, 1.9 square miles (4.9 km ) of it is land and 2.0 square miles (5.2 km ) of it (51.55%) is water. Kivalina has a dry subarctic climate with long very cold winters and short cool summers. August

294-635: A language option on their website. In 2022, an Iñupiaq version of Wordle was created. There are four main dialect divisions and these can be organized within two larger dialect collections: Extra geographical information: Bering Strait dialect: The Native population of the Big Diomede Island was moved to the Siberian mainland after World War II. The following generation of the population spoke Central Siberian Yupik or Russian. The entire population of King Island moved to Nome in

343-534: A second-class city in 1969. During the 1970s, a new school and an electric system were constructed in the city. On December 5, 2014, the only general store in Kivalina burned down. In July 2015, a newer store was opened after months of rebuilding to make the store more convenient and safe. Kivalina is on the southern tip of a 12 km (7.5 mi) long barrier island located between the Chukchi Sea and

392-481: A sequence in Iñupiaq. The Bering strait dialect has a fourth vowel /e/, which preserves the fourth proto-Eskimo vowel reconstructed as */ə/. In the other dialects, proto-Eskimo */e/ has merged with the closed front vowel /i/. The merged /i/ is referred to as the "strong /i/", which causes palatalization when preceding consonant clusters in the North Slope dialect (see section on palatalization below). The other /i/

441-740: Is siun whereas in Uummarmiutun it is hiun . A word may end in any nasal sound (except for the /ɴ/ found in North Slope), in the stops /t k q/ or in a vowel. In the North Slope dialect if a word ends with an m, and the next word begins with a stop, the m is pronounced /p/, as in aġna m t upiŋa, pronounced /aʁna p tupiŋa/ Very little information of the prosody of Iñupiaq has been collected. However, "fundamental frequency (Hz), intensity (dB), loudness (sones), and spectral tilt (phons - dB) may be important" in Malimiutun. Likewise, "duration

490-497: Is "a mix of the various speech forms formerly used in the area". The Point Barrow dialect was "spoken only by a few elders" in 2010. A dialect of North Slope is also spoken in Kivalina , Point Lay , Wainwright , Atqasuk , Utqiaġvik , Nuiqsut , and Barter Island . Iñupiaq dialects differ widely between consonants used. However, consonant clusters of more than two consonants in a row do not occur. A word may not begin nor end with

539-497: Is a city and village in Northwest Arctic Borough , Alaska , United States . The population was 377 at the 2000 census and 374 as of the 2010 census . The island on which the village lies is threatened by rising sea levels and coastal erosion caused by climate change . As of 2013 , it is predicted that the island will be inundated by 2025. In addition to well-publicized impacts of climate change,

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588-469: Is an Inuit language , the ancestors of which may have been spoken in the northern regions of Alaska for as long as 5,000 years. Between 1,000 and 800 years ago, Inuit migrated east from Alaska to Canada and Greenland , eventually occupying the entire Arctic coast and much of the surrounding inland areas. The Iñupiaq dialects are the most conservative forms of the Inuit language, with less linguistic change than

637-425: Is having a voiced fricative consonant appear with a nasal consonant. Since all stops in North Slope are voiceless, a lot of needed assimilation arises from having to assimilate a voiceless stop to a voiced consonant. This process is realized by assimilating the first consonant in the cluster to a consonant that: 1) has the same (or closest possible) area of articulation as the consonant being assimilated to; and 2) has

686-403: Is it heavily impacting the Kivalina community. The sea ice that was once there helping to protect the city has now disappeared. Due to these rising sea levels maybe people are out of homes and since resources are becoming scarce it is leading to overcrowding and poor sanitation. In 2011, Haymarket Books published "Kivalina: A Climate Change Story" by Christine Shearer. The city of Kivalina and

735-549: Is not likely to be important in Malimiut Iñupiaq stress/syllable prominence". For North Slope Iñupiaq The voiceless stops /p/ /t/ /k/ and /q/ are not aspirated. This may or may not be true for other dialects as well. /c/ is derived from a palatalized and unreleased /t/. Source: Two consonants cannot appear together unless they share the manner of articulation (in this case treating the lateral and approximant consonants as fricatives). The only exception to this rule

784-530: Is preceded by an ⟨i⟩, it is weak. Words begin with a stop (with the exception of the palatal stop /c/), the fricative /s/, nasals /m n/, with a vowel, or the semivowel /j/. Loanwords , proper names, and exclamations may begin with any segment in both the Seward Peninsula dialects and the North Slope dialects. In the Uummarmiutun dialect words can also begin with /h/. For example, the word for "ear" in North Slope and Little Diomede Island dialects

833-430: Is referred to as "the weak /i/". Weak and strong /i/s are not differentiated in orthography, making it impossible to tell which ⟨i⟩ represents palatalization "short of looking at other processes which depend on the distinction between two i's or else examining data from other Eskimo languages". However, it can be assumed that, within a word, if a palatal consonant is preceded by an ⟨i⟩, it is strong. If an alveolar consonant

882-447: Is the wettest month of the year, while December is the snowiest month. Kivalina first appeared on the 1920 U.S. Census as an unincorporated (native) village. It formally incorporated in 1969. As of the census of 2010, there were 374 people, and 99 households. The population density was 202.1 inhabitants per square mile (78.0/km ). There were 80 housing units at an average density of 42.9 per square mile (16.6/km ). The racial makeup of

931-626: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . The entire coastal plain of Alaska has tremendous ecological importance with the densest concentration of birds in the Arctic. Under the North Slope is an ancient seabed, which now contains large amounts of petroleum . Within the North Slope, there is a geological feature called the Barrow Arch — a belt of the kind of rock known to be able to serve as a trap for oil. It runs from

980-569: The Ipiutak culture, a pre- Thule , non- whaling civilization that disappeared over a millennium ago. It is the only village in the region where people hunt the bowhead whale . The original village was located at the north end of the Kivalina Lagoon , but was relocated. In about 1900, reindeer were brought to the area and some people were trained as reindeer herders. An airstrip was built at Kivalina in 1960. Kivalina incorporated as

1029-760: The National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA), which was established by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 as an oil supply for the US Navy, though the presence of oil in the region had been known by American whalers for some time. It contains the bulk of Alaska's known petroleum until the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field was discovered (outside the NPRA) in 1968, followed by the Kuparuk River oil field in 1969. The petroleum extracted from

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1078-522: The U.S. Geological Survey estimated 3.6 billion barrels of oil and 8.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in Mississippian through Paleogene strata in the central North Slope of Alaska, which are undiscovered and technically recoverable. 69°03′28″N 152°51′46″W  /  69.0578758°N 152.8628274°W  / 69.0578758; -152.8628274 Kivalina, Alaska Kivalina (kiv-uh-LEE-nuh) ( Inupiaq : Kivalliñiq )

1127-565: The University of Alaska Fairbanks offers bachelor's degrees in Iñupiaq language and culture, while a preschool/kindergarten-level Iñupiaq immersion school named Nikaitchuat Iḷisaġviat teaches grades PreK-1st grade in Kotzebue . In 2014, Iñupiaq became an official language of the State of Alaska, alongside English and nineteen other indigenous languages. In 2018, Facebook added Iñupiaq as

1176-471: The 1970s, most Iñupiat did not pass the Iñupiaq language on to their children, for fear of them being punished for speaking their language. In 1972, the Alaska Legislature passed legislation mandating that if "a [school is attended] by at least 15 pupils whose primary language is other than English, [then the school] shall have at least one teacher who is fluent in the native language". Today,

1225-907: The Native Village of Kivalina IRA Council brought suit against the US EPA for failing to adequately address public comments in their permitting of the Red Dog Mine discharge plan under the National Pollutant Discharge Elilmination System (NPDES) . In 2012, the US Ninth Circuit court upheld the decision of the EPA Appeals Board to not review the permit, citing the insufficiency of the Tribe's argument. On August 4, 2011, it

1274-539: The Prudhoe Bay Oil Field and neighboring reserves is also a potential source for unconventional tight oil and shale gas – possibly containing "up to 2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and up to 80 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2012 U.S. Geological Survey report." Alaska North Slope (ANS) is a more expensive waterborne crude oil. Since 1987, Alaska North Slope (ANS) crude production has been in decline. As of 2020,

1323-483: The Red Dog Mine, for polluting its water drinking water source and subsistence fish resources through their discharge of mine waste into the Wulik River. Teck Cominco settled the suit in 2008 by agreeing to build a wastewater pipeline from the mine to the ocean that would bypass discharging into the Wulik River. However, the pipeline was not constructed and the alternative settlement clause was followed. In 2010,

1372-527: The Village of Kivalina has been a party in several environmentally related court cases. Kivalina is an Inupiat community first reported as "Kivualinagmut" in 1847 by Lt. Lavrenty Zagoskin of the Imperial Russian Navy . It has long been a stopping place for travelers between Arctic coastal areas and Kotzebue Sound communities. Three bodies and artifacts were found in 2009 representing

1421-460: The Wulik River causes increased turbidity which affects the city's drinking water source and complicates water treatment. Due to severe sea wave erosion during storms, the city hopes to relocate again to a new site 12 km (7.5 mi) from the present site. In 2009, Kivalina was identified by a GAO report as one of 31 environmentally threatened communities in Alaska. Relocation to a site off

1470-601: The barrier island to higher ground has had little progress. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , the estimated cost of relocation runs between $ 95 and $ 125 million, whereas the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates it to be between $ 100 and $ 400 million. In 2018, a decision was made to build an evacuation road across the Kivalina Lagoon to provide a means for the community to escape devastating storms that can inundate

1519-750: The barrier island. Additionally, the road will connect the village with the proposed new school site on K-Hill. Kivalina's environmental issues were prominently featured in The 2015 Weather Channel documentary "Alaska: State of Emergency" hosted by Dave Malkoff . Kivalina was one of the two towns featured in the Al Jazeera English Fault Lines documentary, When the Water Took the Land. The community, who were originally nomadic, were given an ultimatum that they would have to settle in

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1568-535: The boots on Kami k + n iaq + te → {kami gn iaqtuq or kami ŋn iaqtuq} {"to put boots on"} + "will" + "he" → {he will put the boots on} iḷisa q "to study" Alaska North Slope The Alaska North Slope is the region of the U.S. state of Alaska located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean , the Chukchi Sea being on

1617-767: The bottom of the Landsat 7 image on the right, the rugged terrain of the Brooks Range mountains is snow-covered in places (blue areas) and exposed (pink areas) in others. Much of the region is located politically in North Slope Borough , and geographically in the Alaska North Slope basin . On August 12, 2018, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the region, the most powerful recorded for the Alaskan North Slope. The region includes

1666-403: The city hopes to relocate again to a new site 12 km (7.5 mi) from the present site; studies of alternate sites are ongoing. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , the estimated cost of relocation runs between $ 95 and $ 125 million, whereas the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates it to be between $ 100 and $ 400 million. Since the temperatures in the Arctic as rising

1715-587: The city of Utqiaġvik to a point just west of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Ira Harkey quotes Noel Wien as stating that in the 1920s, "To keep warm and to cook with, the Eskimo was burning hunks of dark stuff he just picked up on the ground all around his tent. This was oil from seepage under the tundra. The Eskimos had always known about the oil, long before there was any drilling for it." The North Slope region includes

1764-512: The city site and surrounding area. Manilaaq Association serves the community as an Alaska Native non-profit regional corporation providing social, tribal and health care services. In 2010, there were 78 households, out of which 61.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.8% were married couples living together, 15.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.9% were non-families. 16.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.8% had someone living alone who

1813-542: The community has been inundated by storm surges and been forced to evacuate. While the risk of inundation from sea water has always existed, storms caused extensive flooding in 1970, 1976, 2002, 2004, and spurred a village-wide evacuation in 2007. To slow erosion, the US Army Corps of Engineers conducted a rip-rap revetment project along the tip of the barrier island and adjacent to the airport. In addition to increased flooding from storm surges, bank erosion along

1862-546: The densest concentration of birds in the Arctic, along with housing substantial amounts of large mammals such as whales, walrus, seals, caribou, and moose. The region includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as well as the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA). Within the North Slope, only a surface "active layer" of the tundra thaws each season; most of the soil is permanently frozen year-round. On top of this permafrost , water flows out to sea via shallow, braided streams or settles into pools and ponds. Along

1911-1135: The early 1960s. The Bering Strait dialect might also be spoken in Teller on the Seward Peninsula . Qawiaraq dialect : A dialect of Qawiaraq is spoken in Nome . A dialect of Qawariaq may also be spoken in Koyuk , Mary's Igloo , Council, and Elim . The Teller sub-dialect may be spoken in Unalakleet . Malimiutun dialect : Both sub-dialects can be found in Buckland , Koyuk , Shaktoolik , and Unalakleet . A dialect of Malimiutun may be spoken in Deering , Kiana , Noorvik , Shungnak , and Ambler . The Malimiutun sub-dialects have also been classified as "Southern Malimiut" (found in Koyuk , Shaktoolik , and Unalakleet ) and "Northern Malimiut" found in "other villages". North Slope dialect: Common North Slope

1960-641: The other Inuit languages. In the mid to late 19th century, Russian, British, and American colonists made contact with Iñupiat people. In 1885, the American territorial government appointed Rev. Sheldon Jackson as General Agent of Education. Under his administration, Iñupiat people (and all Alaska Natives) were educated in English-only environments, forbidding the use of Iñupiaq and other indigenous languages of Alaska. After decades of English-only education, with strict punishment if heard speaking Iñupiaq, after

2009-468: The permanent community or their children would be taken from them. The village's plight was also examined in Kivalina , an hourlong documentary released as part of the PBS World series America ReFramed . The Atlantic did a photo journalism story documenting climate change in Kivalina in their September 2019 article, The Impact of Climate Change on Kivalina, Alaska . The McQueen School, operated by

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2058-780: The region is transferred south by means of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System to Valdez on the Pacific Ocean . In 2005 the USGS estimated that the Arctic Alaska Petroleum Province, encompassing all the lands and adjacent Continental Shelf areas north of the Brooks Range-Herald arch (see map) held more than 50 billion bbl of oil and natural-gas liquids and 227 trillion cubic feet of gas. The source rock for

2107-431: The same manner of articulation as the second consonant that it is assimilating to. If the second consonant is a lateral or approximant, the first consonant will assimilate to a lateral or approximant if possible. If not the first consonant will assimilate to a fricative. Therefore: Kami k "to put boots on" + + n iaq "will" + + te "he" → → kami gn iaqtuq or kami ŋn iaqtuq he will put

2156-517: The substance consisted of millions of microscopic eggs. Later, officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that the orange colored materials were some kind of crustacean eggs or embryos, but subsequent examination resulted in a declaration that the substance consisted of spores from a possibly undescribed species of rust fungus , later revealed to be Chrysomyxa ledicola . On numerous occasions

2205-601: The village was 3.45% White and 96.55% Native American . The Native Village of Kivalina is a federally recognized tribe with an elected tribal council. The City of Kivalina, organized under the Northwest Arctic Borough under the State of Alaska, has an elected mayor and city administrator and a 7-member city council. Per the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act , NANA Corporation owns the surface and sub-surface rights to

2254-596: The western side of Point Barrow , and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern. With the exception of the highway connecting Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay , the region is disconnected from the rest of the Alaskan road system and relies mostly on waterways and small airports for transportation due to the Brooks Range secluding the region from the rest of the state. The entire Arctic coastal plain of Alaska with its Arctic coastal tundra has tremendous ecological importance with

2303-451: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.83 and the average family size was 5.50. In the village the population was spread out, with 44.0% under the age of 18, 13.3% from 18 to 24, 20.7% from 25 to 44, 15.9% from 45 to 64, and 6.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 21 years. For every 100 females, there were 106.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 113.1 males. The median income for

2352-568: Was dismissed by the United States district court on September 30, 2009, on the grounds that regulating greenhouse emissions was a political rather than a legal issue and one that needed to be resolved by Congress and the Administration rather than by courts. In 2004, Kivalina underrepresentation from the co-founder of Center on Race Poverty and Environment , Luke Cole , sued Canadian mining company Teck Cominco , operator of

2401-473: Was reported that residents of the city of Kivalina had seen a strange orange goo wash up on the shores. According to the Associated Press, "Tests have been conducted on the substance on the surface of the water in Kivalina. City Administrator Janet Mitchell told the Associated Press that the substance has also shown up in some residents' rain buckets." On August 8, 2011, Associated Press reported that

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