Developed by the Staff of the
National Bilingual Materials Development Center
Rural Education
University of Alaska
2223 Spenard Road
Anchorage, Alaska 99503
Dr. Tupou L. Pulu, Director
Compiled by
Susan Sun
Florence Douglas
Minnie Gray
Hannah Loon
Angeline Newlin
Ruth Ramoth Sampson
Bertha Sheldon
Illustrated by
J. Leslie Boffa




This material was developed and reproduced with funds provided by Grant G007805056, Title VII ESEA. It has been reproduced in this form for field testing only. All rights are reserved.
9/79/500

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Although this publication was prepared pursuant to a grant from the Office of Health, Education and Welfare, Bilingual Education Department, no official endorsement should be inferred.

INTRODUCTION

The National Bilingual Materials Development Center is indebted to Susan Sun, Florence Douglas, and Bertha Sheldon of Shungnak, Minnie Gray of Ambler, and Hannah Loon of Selawik for their work in making the original compilation of the entries for the Kobuk Iñupiat Junior Dictionary. Ruth Ramoth Sampson of Selawik and Angeline Newlin of Noorvik took on the tedious task of making new additions and editing the whole dictionary. Without the determination and devotion of these people, this work would not have been accomplished. It is, therefore, with deep appreciation that we say “Quyaanna,” to all of these people. After two years of hard work, they have completed this dictionary project.

The Center would also like to express it most sincere gratitude to Edna MacLean and Larry Kaplan of the Alaska Native Language Center for their assistance in the proofreading of the final text. Their numerous suggestions for the improvement of the sample sentences and how to handle certain problems connected with entering some of the words in the Iñupiaq language have been greatly appreciated. Edna MacLean has also given valuable suggestions for the introduction to this dictionary.

Although this dictionary is not a complete inventory of the words in the Iñupiaq language, it is a good beginning. Hopefully, those who become proficient in the writing of Iñupiaq will be inspired by this initial work to expand it into a more comprehensive book.

We have tried our best to make this work as error free as possible, but we know that mistakes will still be found. We would appreciate hearing about these mistakes from those who will have the opportunity to use this Junior Dictionary of Kobuk Iñupiaq.


The Staff
National Bilingual Materials Development Center


Eskimos, who call themselves Iñupiat ‘the real people’, have lived in the Kobuk River area of Alaska for over ten thousand years. They speak a language, Iñupiaq, which is not limited to Alaska alone, but extends over the polar region across Canada to Greenland.

The Alaskan Iñupiaq language has four major dialects. These are the North Slope, the Malimiut, the Qawiaraq, and the Bering Strait. Villages may be divided according to these four dialects in the following manner:

A. North Slope

Kaktovik (Barter Island) , Nuiqsat, Barrow, Wainwright, Point Lay, Point Hope (a distinct subdialect of North Slope ), Atqasuk, Anaktuvuk Pass (which has influences from North Slope and Malimiut), and Kivalina.

B. Malimiut

1. Northern Malimiut

a. Kobuk or Inland Variety

Kobuk, Ambler, Shungnak, Selawik, Noorvik, and Kiana

b. Kotzebue or Coastal Variety Kotzebue, Noatak, Deering, and Buckland

C. Qawiaraq

Teller, Nome, Mary’s Igloo, Council, Golovin, White Mountain, Elim, Koyuk, Shaktoolik, and Unalakleet. (The village of Teller is listed again under the Bering Strait dialect. Another Eskimo language called Central Yup’ik is also used in Elim and Golovin.)

D. Bering Strait

King Island, Little Diomede, Shishmaref, Wales, Brevig Mission, and Teller

There are many subdialects within each major dialect of Iñupiaq. In fact, the speech in each village contains individual characteristics not shared by other villages. These differences, however, are not so great as to hamper communication among speakers of these various subdialects.

This junior dictionary is written for Northern Malimiut Iñupiaq, emphasizing the Kobuk or Inland variety. However, it can still be used by other speakers of Malimiut Iñupiaq.

PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

The following phonemic inventory is for the Malimiut dialect of Iñupiaq:

VOWELS
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid
Low a

CONSONANTS
Labials Alveolars Palatals Velars Uvulars Glottals

Voiceless
Stops p t ch k q
Voiceless
Fricatives [f] ł ḷ s sr [x] [ẋ] h
Vo iced
Fricatives v l ḷ y g ġ
Nasals m n ñ ŋ [ŋ] [ŋ̇ ]

One can see from the charts above that the modern day Malimiut dialects have three vowels and twenty-one consonants. The symbols in brackets are not part of the alphabet (see page v). Iñupiaq vowels can be either long or short. Long vowels are written double and short vowels are written single. The length of a vowel can change the meaning of a word. See the following examples:

Long a, /aa/

amaq- ‘to place a baby on one’s back’
amaaq- ‘to be carrying a baby on one’s back’

aġnat ‘women’
aġnaat ‘his wife’

Long i, /ii/
siksrik ‘one ground squirrel’
siksriik ‘two ground squirrels’

Long u, /uu/
aŋun ‘man
aŋuun ‘paddle’

Vowel diphthongs are also present in Iñupiaq and are written as paired single vowels. See the following examples:

ai as in aiviq ‘walrus’
ia as in qiaruq ‘he is crying’
au as in auk ‘blood’
ua as in quaq ‘frozen meat or fish’
iu as in kiugaa ‘he answered her’
ui as in uiga ‘my husband’

In Malimiut Iñupiaq, a vowel flattening process has taken place causing pairs of diphthongs to be indistinguishable from each other:

au and ua both sound like /ŏ/ in the English words for oak and joke. Therefore, there is no difference in the pronunciation of the au and ua in the following words:
quaq ‘frozen fish or meat’
qauq ‘forehead’

iu is pronounced /ii/ as in the sound of the English word bee. The vowels in the following words sound the same:
kiugaa ‘he answered her’
iigaa ‘he swallowed it’

ai and ia are pronounced /ey/ like the English word may. Therefore, the diphthongs in the following words are pronounced the same:
aiyaa ‘he fetched it’
igialaruq ‘he is shouting’

ai and ia are also pronounced /æ/ when followed by q or ġ as in the English word bat. The diphthongs in the following words are pronounced exactly alike:
ipnaiq ‘Dall sheep’
asriaq ‘berry’

There are two known cases where ai sounds like /ay/ as in the English word eye:
qaġġaiñ ‘come!’
apai ‘too much’

There used to be a fourth vowel in Proto-Eskimo, the parent language from which modern day Iñupiaq has evolved. This fourth vowel was a mid central vowel,/ə/. In time, /ə/ changed to become more like the high front vowel /i/. These two vowels sound exactly alike today.

However, their presence within words can be easily identified for they affect surrounding sounds in certain predictable ways.

The /i/ sounds that were originally /ə/ undergo a change to /a/ in certain environments. Original /i/ sounds do not change vowel quality, but they cause palatalization of following alveolar consonants. In Kobuk Iñupiaq, alveolar consonants and velar consonants are palatalized following original /i/ sounds. The /i/ that comes from the original /ə/ sound is referred to as ‘weak i’. The /i/ that comes from the original /i/ sound which causes palatalization and which does not change quality, is referred to as ‘strong i’. A full discussion of the processes involving ‘weak i’ and ‘strong i’ is beyond the scope of the present work. The following, however, are a few examples of the sound changes involving ‘weak i’ and ‘strong i’
1. Vowel Change
In comparing the singular and dual forms of nouns, one sees
that final syllables containing ‘weak i’ in the singular form
have /a/ in the dual. The ‘strong i’ sounds do not change
their quality:
Weak i
Singular Dual
‘house’ tupiq tuppak
‘eye’ iri irrak
‘mukluk’ kamik kammak
Strong i
Singular Dual
‘squirrel’ siksrik siksriik
‘ptarmigan’ aqargiq aqargik
‘dog’ qipmiq qipmik
2. Consonant Palatalization
The /l/ in the postbase /-lu/ ‘and’ is palatalized to / ḷ / following ‘strong i’. The ‘weak i’ does not cause any change in the /l/:
Weak i
‘house’ tupiq + lu tupiġlu
‘eye’ iri + lu irilu
‘mukluk’ kamik + lu kamiglu


Strong i
‘squirrel’ siksrik + lu siksrigḷu
‘ptarmigan’ aqargiq + lu aqargiġḷu
‘dog’ qipmiq + lu qipmiġḷu

The following chart summarizes the changes that take place in the palatalization process in Kobuk Iñupiaq:
Alveolars Palatals Velars
t ⇒ c h ⇐ k
l ⇒ ḷ s ⇒ sr
1 ⇒ ḷ y ⇐ g
n ⇒ ñ ⇐ ŋ



The arrows indicate the direction of change.

One thing to note about the chart of consonant phonemes at the beginning of this guide is that there are four symbols which are enclosed in brackets. The brackets indicate that the symbol is not used in the writing system and is not among the letters chosen to represent the sounds of Iñupiaq. Each of these sounds is written using the symbol immediately above or below it, or a combination of symbols as follows:

[f] is written v

[x] is written k or kh

[ẋ] is written q or qh or h

[ŋ̇] is written ġ
THE ALPHABET

The following symbols, illustrated by sample words, have been chosen to represent the sounds of Kobuk Iñupiaq. English words containing equivalent or similar sounds are also given. Where no equivalent sounds are found in English, no samples are given:
Letters Iñupiaq Words English Meanings English Words
a amiq ‘skin’ awake
ch iñuich ‘people’ witch
g agiaq ‘file’
ġ niġiruq ‘he is eating’
h ayahaaq ‘string figure’ hockey
i ikiruq ‘it is burning’ it
k kataktuq ‘it is falling’ skill (not kill)
l alappaa ‘it is cold’ love
ḷ iḷaga ‘my relative’ million
ł iłuaqtuq ‘it is correct’
ḷ sikḷaq ‘pick axe’
m mannik ‘egg’ man
n nuna ‘land’ now
ñ iñuk ‘person’ onion
ŋ aŋun ‘man sing
p putu ‘hole’ spot (not pot)
q qupak ‘trimming’
r iri ‘eye’
s sisuruq ‘he is sliding’ soon
sr quviasruktuq ‘he is happy’
t talu ‘door’ store (not tore)
u ulu ‘woman’s knife’ put
v kiviruq ‘he is sinking’ vigor
y qayaq ‘kayak’ yes

DICTIONARY FORMAT

All entries in this dictionary are made alphabetically in English. The main words are entered on the left margin and the subentries are indented. The subentries consist of multiple meanings and specific examples or other words that are related to the main word. For example, the entry for bird has a number of specific bird names listed under it. These subentries are listed by numerals. Sample sentences using the words in context are provided for each entry.

No attempt was made to give the entries grammatical labels. One can easily detect, however, which words are nouns and which ones are verbs. Nouns usually have equivalents in Iñupiaq which are written on the same line as the main entry. They are also followed by the abbreviations dl. to indicate their dual forms, and pl. to indicate their plural forms. Verbs, on the other hand, are entered as stems with hyphen marks after them to show that they may not stand alone, but must be completed by verb endings.

There are two kinds of verb endings: the intransitive and the transitive. Intransitive verb endings show the person and number of the subject. That is, they show who is doing the action, and how many are involved in doing it. The transitive verb endings show both person and number not only for the subject (the actor, or person(s) doing the action), but also for the object (the receiver of the action, or the person(s) or thing s being acted upon). See the following examples using the third person endings only:

Intransitive Verb Endings

niġi ‘to eat’
niġiruq ‘he is eating’
niġiruk ‘they(two) are eating’
niġirut ‘they (three or more) are eating’

Transitive Verb Endings (showing change in the number of the subject)

niġi ‘to eat’
niġiyaa ‘he is eating it’
niġiyaak ‘they (two) are eating it’
niġiyaat ‘they (three or more) are eating it’

Transitive Verb Endings (showing change in the number of the object)

sana- ‘to carve’
sanagaa ‘he is carving it’
sanagik ‘he is carving them (two items)’
sanagai ‘he is carving them (three or more items)’

Sample sentences with verbs in this dictionary are written, using the third person singular. When the abbreviations dl. and pl. precede the verb forms for some entries, they indicate that the dual and plural forms respectively are also given. The number of object in these samples is very often singular; however, when the abbreviations dl.obj. and pl.obj. precede the entry, they indicate that the dual and the plural forms of the object are also given. The subject number will then remain unchanged.

This dictionary also contains a few Iñupiaq postbases. The postbases are meaningful units which are suffixed to nouns and verbs. Each postbase entry is preceded and followed by a hyphen. The first hyphen indicates that the postbase needs to be attached to a stem, or base word, and the second hyphen indicates that it needs an ending to make it complete. Whenever a postbase has as its first and second consonants any alveolar sounds, and in Kobuk Iñupiaq velar consonants too, alternate palatalized consonants are also listed. Plain alveolar sounds occur with words which have the ‘weak i’ sounds in their final vowels. The palatal sounds occur with words containing ‘strong i’. Although ‘strong i’ is not marked in this dictionary, one should still know why there are two forms listed for certain postbases.

Other markings that follow the postbase entry are notations in brackets which explain some things about the listed postbase. These markings are as follows:

[n-v] This means that the postbase is attached to a noun stem and the combined result is a verb stem.

[v-n] This means that the postbase is attached to a verb stem and the combined result is a noun stem.

[n-n] This means that the postbase is attached to a noun stem and the combined result remains a noun.

[v-v] This means that the postbase is attached to a verb stem and the combined result remains a verb.

Loan words are marked in two ways. Loan words from English are marked (Eng.), and loan words from Russian are marked (Russ.).

The Iñupiaq index at the end of the dictionary should assist the user in locating words easily. Not all words used in the dictionary are listed however, an attempt was made to list all major words which could conceivably be used as main entries had the dictionary been made with Iñupiaq words as main entries instead of English.

There are many ways to make a dictionary. We feel, however, that the method used in this dictionary is one that will aid beginning students of Iñupiaq in becoming proficient in using the language. It should also be a great help to those who want to know how to spell words correctly in the Kobuk Iñupiaq dialect.

The Staff

National Bilingual Materials Development Center