09-09-22

I really like the idea of having a Territorial Language Centre for Nunavut and I thought I should copy and past the item on: Possible roles of a National Language Centre:

1) To help regional language centres with things they find difficult, for example:
to be a clearing house for research and researchers and putting them together with regional centres; carrying out coordination and information exchange between regions, including training in conjunction with training providers; building some infrastructure that will be useful to a wide range of regional centres and community programs like templates for intereactive educational materials, dictionaries, talking books.technical assistance for language work along the lines of what provided by the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity
2) To develop policy,
3) To lobby for funding and recognition
4) To promote the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language

and the various functions of the National Indigenous Language Centre listed are to support:
1. Language nests (Indigenous language in early childhood)
2. Community language teams
3. Regional Indigenous Language Centres
4. a National Indigenous Languages Centre

I remember a few years back, Dept of Education senior managers were getting all excited about setting up Language Nests. There might be a few Language Nests that started under the PreSchool or Early childhood programs (daycares) in most of the communities across Nunavut. But, I see the RLC as a place to focus on Inuit Language issues such as standardizing inuktitut and enriching the language. Just my thoughts on how to deal with Inuit Language in Nunavut.

09-09-21

The blog I read tonight is a copy of a announcement made by the Government of Canada to provide funding to the Sweetgrass First Nations Language Council, an organization that promotes Aboriginal languages across Ontario. The funding is provided through the Aboriginal Languages Initiative, part of the Department of Canadian Heritage's Aboriginal Peoples' Program. This is one way to get funding to do all kinds of interesting projects for Aborignal Languages in Canada. There is support from the federal government for these kinds of initiatives. One of these days when I have the time I will need to understand how to write up proposals and apply for this kind of funding to enhance our Inuit language programs in Nunavut.

The other site I came across only had this abstract on: This article discusses the development of integrated multilingual Web databases to help the preservation of the Native American language East Cree. It would be interesting to read the whole thing.....maybe some other time.

Off the Google Reader

Interesting read about setting up A National Language Centre. Do we in Canada have one set up already? Should the Regional Inuit Associations be thinking of setting one up so they become the Regional organizations to deal with Inuktitut Language and Culture in Nunavut? Or rather to make sure appropriate materials and programs are offered thru educational institutions. Do any of the Inuit Associations have a department to deal with language and culture? I know in Kivalliq they have really neat programs like -Somebody's daughter and other land programs that are runned for 2-4 wks at a time. I know I'm getting off topic, but reading about the National Language Centre is a great idea to really focus on Inuit Language in Nunavut and I think the RIA's should be looking into setting one up some place and managing it for the three regions. I'm sure it would be a benefit to our schools and other interest groups.

09-09-17 What others blog about standardizing the Inuktitut language.

After going through some blogs on Standardizing Inuktitut Language and reading some blogs, I'm more confused about the whole idea than ever before. I realize My idea is more about standardizing Inuktitut language for our Nunavut schools and this blog I came across is talking about standardizing inuktitut language globally. It's focus is more on having one common writing system across the circumpolar world for political reasons.

Another blog I came across talks about Preserving the Inuit language and culture and mentions the Canadian Native Americans are working to establish an Inuktitut institute to preserve native language and culture. They are basing their plans on similar efforts by the Faroese Language Committee in the Faroe Islands. I think the author of this blog touches a bit of standardizing the Inuktitut languge when he writes: "It will need to come up with new words to adapt to the rapidly changing world. To come up with new words and to standardize spelling across regions would be one of the main purposes of the Inuktitut institute if it were founded." I believe we as a Inuit group across Nunavut are already doing colloborative work to standardize new word on new technology.

Then when I searched for Queen's Inuktitut, I came across a very interesting blog titled: a Solution for two crisis by Michael's Meandering. He included in his blog a link about how other countries like Germany did their written language reform for a new German written standard.

Urgency to Standardize Inuktitut language.

CBC News reported on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 | 11:38 AM CT on 'Inuit urged to standardize language'. Not only for political reasons but also for educational reasons there an urgency for this issue. As a curriculum producer I know at first hand is it very difficult to meet the needs of all educators with different dialects, and it is also very costly.

While I was Googling on this issue, I came across this site titled Spoken Language and on the site the description said: Since the mid-1970s, Inuit have made efforts to standardize Inuktitut so that the language becomes consistent throughout the circumpolar world. ... When I opened it, surprisingly it didn't say much about the issue.

So I scrolled down some more and came across a announcement made by Louis Tapardjuk the Minister of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth that was reported by Nunatsiaq News only a few months ago. (Hmmm... where was I when the news came out?) According to the date on the news report I was out camping north of Chesterfield Inlet. It reports the Department of CLEY will be setting up a special committee called Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit, Inuit Language Authority. This is a committee I most definately will have to watch.

My View

It's been a while since I've really thought about this topic. It's an issue that has been around for some time now. In my early years as a educator during one of my community visits while working as the Inuktitut Program Coordinator for Kivalliq Divisional Board of Education, I came across two teachers in the same school that were using different Inuktut month terms. And I thought that wasn't fair to the students who will learn one term in that one classroom and then be expected to use a different term in the other classroom. So, I had to think of a way to deal with this issue and what I came up with was to make a list of common inuktitut terms such month terms, days of the week in our many dialects across Kivalliq and ask the Inuit teachers in each school to review the list, then agree on the appropriate terms for their community. Once I got the list from the teachers, I presented it to the principals during the annual principals' meeting and asked for their assistance to bring the list to their DEAs' so they can be approved for school use, then reviewed every 5 years. Out of 11 principals, only one presented this project to the DEA and got the support. After months of waiting to hear back from the principals, I soon realized that it will never reach the hands of the some DEA members. I was disappointed to realize the lack of support from the principals, but that wasn't going to stop me. I decided to meet with the DEA in each community myself when I have the chance. I did manage to meet with one DEA and got the support before I changed jobs.

My personal view with standardization is mixed. I love the fact that there are a lot of dialects across Nunavut and it's fun to learn them. As a child I grew up hearing my ataatatsiaq speaking in his Netsilik dialect, but my anaanatsiaq was from Aivilik and that is the dialect we learnt to speak. So, I feel strongly about keeping the many different dialects, but I also know it's very complicated and costly to accommodate the needs of not only educators, but other interest groups. I would agree to Standardizing the Inuit Language if it's planned out well so that each community know how to keep their dialect.

As a curriculum developer for Nunavut, it is very hard to try and meet the needs of our Inuit teachers when there is limited funding to publish teaching resources.