Words of the Inuit by Louis-Jacques Dorais

Author:Louis-Jacques Dorais
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
Published: 2020-09-09T19:15:26+00:00

Chapter Six

Words for Socializing in the Contemporary World

Ai—Inuk inuuqatiminik nilliujijuq takujaminik taanna uqausiq tungasukkaigutik angirtisigutik.

Hi!—A person orally addresses a companion that he/she sees; this word [is] a means for making [people] comfortable and responsive.

Taamusi Qumaq (1991, 105)

In the summer of 1694, the French Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet was sailing along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Near the southwestern entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle, he met a small group of Inuit whose leader, as he recorded in his diary, greeted him as follows: “Ahé, ahé, thou tcharacou!” According to Jolliet, this meant “Hail! Hail! Lay down arms! [Salut, salut, bas les armes!],” an utterance that can be reconstructed as “Ai! Ai! Tutsiarakku”—“Hi! Hi! I beg it” (Dorais 1980). What was the Inuit family chief—whom Jolliet called their Capitaine— begging for? His greeting was probably a way of showing his peaceful intentions, coupled with a request for trading with the French.

The exclamation Ai! still constitutes the common form of greeting in Inuktitut. Even Qallunaat living in the North know that upon passing or meeting someone you know, you must say “Ai!” or better yet, “[So-and-so] ai!” as in “Miajingai” (“Hi Mary!”) or “Maasiungai” (“Hi Matthew”).1 Northern residents also learn that whenever greeted, they should acknowledge the salutation by answering “Aa!” (Nunavik and Labrador) or “Ii!” (elsewhere), in other words, “Yes!” In the opening quotation, Taamusi Qumaq nicely summarizes the social function of the word Ai! According to him, this exclamation is “a means for making people comfortable,” used for establishing a pleasant relationship with somebody one sees—or hears on the telephone (uqalauti, “a means to talk for a long time”), where “Ai!” takes the place of the English “Hello!” In order to be activated, the social bond it establishes must be acknowledged by the person who is greeted. So Ai! is also “a means for making people respond [i.e., acquiesce, say yes].”

In this last semantic stroll, we will look at some words Inuit use for socializing with each other. Because this socialization now takes place in a modern North American setting, we shall also examine how contemporary residents of the Arctic talk about the communities where they live.

Words for Socializing

Words for socializing include all particles and other types of utterances (question words, phrases, etc.) that people use when contacting each other and/or inquiring about their mutual conditions, circumstances, and activities. These are too numerous to allow for any attempt at an exhaustive survey. Accordingly, I shall limit my description to two types of social expressions: greetings and question words dealing with identity, place, and time.

Greetings

We just saw that over 300 years ago, the greeting Ai! was already in use in the Strait of Belle Isle area. As centuries passed, however, Inuit became acquainted with Euro-American ways and gradually added to their Ai! new greetings inspired by Qallunaat. Nowadays, people meeting each other or speaking on the phone are also expected to ask, “Qanuippit?”—“How are you?” As shown at the end of the preceding chapter, the

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