Utkuhiksalik, Utkuhikhalik, Utkuhikhaliq, Utkuhiksalingmiutitut, Utkuhiksalingmiutut,Briggs, J. L. (1970), Never in anger. Portrait of an Eskimo family. Harvard University Press. Utkuhiksalingmiut Inuktitut,
/ref> Utku,, Gjoa Haven dialect, is a sub-dialect of

Natsilingmiutut Netsilik , Natsilik, Nattilik, Netsilingmiut, Natsilingmiutut, Nattilingmiutut, or Nattiliŋmiutut is an Inuit language variety spoken in western Nunavut, Canada, by Netsilik Inuit. ''Natsilingmiut'' (ᓇᑦᓯᓕᖕᒥᐅᑦ "people from Natsil ...

(''Nattiliŋmiut'') dialect of Inuvialuktun (Western Canadian Inuit or Inuktitut) language once spoken in the Utkuhiksalik (ᐅᑦᑯᓯᒃᓴᓕᒃ

Chantrey Inlet Chantrey Inlet (''Tariunnuaq'') is a bay on the Arctic coast of Canada. It marks the southeast "corner" where the generally east–west coast turns sharply north. To the west is the Adelaide Peninsula and to the east is mainland. King William I ...

) area of Nunavut, and now spoken mainly by elders in Uqsuqtuuq (or Uqšuqtuuq ᐅᖅᓱᖅᑑᖅ

Gjoa Haven Gjoa Haven (; Inuktitut: Uqsuqtuuq, syllabics: ᐅᖅᓱᖅᑑᖅ , meaning "lots of fat", referring to the abundance of sea mammals in the nearby waters; or �ʒɔa evən is an Inuit hamlet in Nunavut, above the Arctic Circle, located in t ...

) and Qamani'tuaq (ᖃᒪᓂ‛ᑐᐊᖅ Baker Lake) on mainland

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is generally written in Inuktitut syllabics. The traditional territory of the Utkuhiksalingmiut / Utkuhikhalingmiut / UkkusiksalingmiutEncyclopedia of the Arctic, edited by Mark Nuttall, 2005
/ref> / Utkusiksalinmiut / Ukkuhikhalinmiutwww.museevirtuel.ca
/ref> (meaning "the people of the place where there is soapstone"Carrie J. Dyck and Jean L. Briggs, Historical developments in Utkuhiksalik phonology
/ref> or "people who have cooking pots") people lay between Chantrey Inlet and Franklin Lake. They made their pots (''utkuhik'' ~ ''utkusik'') from

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the ...

of the area, therefore their name. Utkuhiksalik has been analysed as a subdialect of Natsilik within the Western Canadian Inuktun (Inuvialuktun) dialect continuum. While Utkuhiksalik has much in common with the other Natsilik subdialects, the Utkuhiksalingmiut and the Natsilingmiut were historically distinct groups. Today there are still lexical and phonological differences between Utkuhiksalik and Natsilik.

Comparison

Utkuhiksalik closely related to Natsilik. The comparison of some words in the two sub-dialects:Carrie J. Dyck et Jean L. Briggs
, "Historical antecedents of /h/, /s/, /j/ and /ř/ in Utkuhiksalik (Inuktitut)", Études/Inuit/Studies, vol. 29, n° 1-2, 2005, p. 307-340. *Utkuhiksalik ařgaq 'hand' (Natsilik proper ažgak) *Utkuhiksalik aqiřgiq 'ptarmigan' (Natsilik proper aqigžeq) *Utkuhiksalik ipřit 'you' (Natsilik proper ižvit)

Franz Boas

Franz Boas included the Ukusiksalirmiut as a tribe of the "Central Eskimo" in the 1888 Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, He considered the Ukusiksalik (Wager River) to be one of "five principal settlements" which included the "Aivillirmiut are Pikiulaq (Depot Island), Nuvung and Ukusiksalik (Wager River), Aivillik (Repulse Bay), Akugdlit (Committee Bay), and Maluksilaq (Lyon Inlet). They may be divided into two groups, the former comprising the southern settlements, the latter the northern ones. Every one of these settlements has certain well known sites, which are frequented at the proper seasons." Their team was not able to make the sledge journeys by ice from Nuvung to Ukusiksalik in the winter of 1864-1865 because large water holes were formed at "the entrance of the bay." In his appendix Boas included ''Ukusiksalik'', "the place with pot stone" and ''Ukusiksalirmiut'', "inhabitant of Ukusiksalik."

Knud Rasmussen

The Danish explorer,

Knud Rasmussen Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (; 7 June 1879 – 21 December 1933) was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of Eskimology" (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studie ...

during his Fifth Thule Expedition, when he crossed the Canadian Arctic, often by dogsled, visited the Jessie Oonark's camp when she was just a teenager. For the remote Utkuhikhalingmiut, he represented the first white contact. In the 1980s Mame Jackson taped Jessie Oonark speaking in Utkuhiksalik and describing this encounter. The interview was broadcast on CBC radio.

Inuit artists

Well-known first generation Inuit artists, such as Jessie Oonark, OC

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

( ᔨᐊᓯ ᐅᓈᖅ; 2 March 1906 - 7 March 1985), Luke Anguhadluk and Marion Tuu'luuq were known as fluent speakers of Utkuhiksalik. Their art work like that of the next generation, which includes many of Oonark's children, reflects many aspects of the Utkuhikhalingmiut culture.

Dictionary

A complete dictionary of Utkuhiksalik was first published in 2015, marking an important contribution to the preservation of the sub-dialect.

Jean Briggs Jean L. Briggs (May 28, 1929 – July 27, 2016) was an American-born anthropologist, ethnographer, linguist, and professor emerita at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her best known works included the 1970 landmark book ''Never in Anger: Portr ...

, an anthropologist and expert on

Inuit languages The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and adjacent subarctic, reaching farthest south in Labrador. The related Yupik languages (spoken in weste ...

, helped to compile the dictionary.

References

External links

Utkuhiksalingmiut Inuktitut Dictionary Project ᑐᑭᕐᑲᖅᑐᑦ ᐅᑦᑯᓯᒃᓴᓕᖕᒥᐅᑦ ᐅᕐᑲᐅᓯᖕᒋᑦ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Utkuhiksalik dialect Inuit group Agglutinative languages Indigenous languages of the North American Arctic First Nations languages in Canada Inuit languages Caribou Inuit Inuktitut words and phrases