Learning Inuktitut - Adamie's Way

Learning Inuktitut Adamie's Way

The thing to remember is that everything comes in threes. This is one of the things I find confuses most foreigners (those that have no clue how to speak Inuktitut).

One Eskimo is called an INUK (pronounced I-nuk). Two of them are called INUUK (i-NUUK). Three or more of them are called INUIT (i-NUIT).

One women's knife is an ULU (U-lu). Two of them are called ULUUK (u-LUUK). Three or more of them are ULUIT (u-LUIT).

What A Change In A Lifetime

Considering I was born in this harsh environment in a time when there was no running water, no telephones, no trucks and no television, I am constantly awed and humbled to think I am able to do basic space age activities such as e-mailing, talking on satellite phones, watching news of the world on TV and driving around in an SUV. To wit: I remember my mother holding my hand to visit friends and relatives who lived in an iglu. The one room enclosure had ice stalagmites on the floor, we could see our breaths while the woman of the house tended the Qudliq, the seal-oil lamp to make hot tea. It was cold. But the women were talking to each other in an excited manner with little or no worries, allowing things to be as they may.