Learn Inuktitut

I spent some time in Nunavut for work a few years back and in a couple of months I’ll be back up there again. It’s a great language. And the syllabic writing is amazing! I haven’t been able to find much on learning the language either, unfortunately. A couple pages of common words and/or phrases. Once, I did find a short sound library but I’ve since forgotten where.

Try to rent or download a movie called Qallunaat: Why White People are Funny.

http://isohunt.com/release/109827

It’s a great cultural mirror.

Found a good website for this. Check out:

http://www.native-languages.org/inuktitut.htm

and

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/%7Einuit/syllabics.htm

Ok I’m addicted to all things Canadian… blame Due South. Anyway I want to learn Inuktitut, just for the fun of it really (that’s as good a reason as any I think). Problem is I can’t find any learning materials. I live in the UK, and not anywhere near a main city either, so I can’t exactly walk into a local bookstore and ask if they’ve got any books on Inuktitut because they’d probably just look at me as if I was asking when the next ship was leaving for Jupiter. Does anyone know of any good websites that could help me learn this language and more about the Inuit people and their culture? Thanx.

I am in the process of collecting as much info on Inuktitut as I can find on the net. I have spent 2 full days digging anywhere I can find a link by Googling Inuktitut and have built up a fair amount of info. I go to Nunavik at least every 2 years for the Puvirnituq Snow Festival which is a week of music and traditional Inuit festivities ie. dog sled races, igloo building , ice sculpting. It is done in odd yeasrs ie 2003,2005 and next in 2007 around Easter. I am a freelance sound engineer and I take care of the music for the week. It would be nice to be able to communicate to the Inuit in their language, they speak to me in English, so I have decide to take the plunge and make a go of it and try to make myself able to function as best I can in Inuktitut. Wih me luck, and good luck to all of you making the effort to do the same.

I would love to learn inuktitut to be able to apply my learned perinatal health skills in a Northern community. There are many job postings for midwives and doulas in the north, however I think it is reasonable to say without Inuktitut you can’t be much help communicating foreign topics in a secondary language such as english.