Note on Orthography and Terminology

In this book, “Indigenous” is used in its standard sense, to refer to all autochthonous peoples worldwide or to a subset of them resident in a particular area. The term “Native” is no longer current in Canada, nor is “Aboriginal” except with reference to constitutional definitions. The Indigenous peoples of northern Canada are correctly termed “Inuit,” while those living in the southern provinces are known as “First Nations.” In contrast, the Yup’ik, Inuit, and Dene peoples of Alaska are collectively termed “Alaska Natives,” both by the government and the people themselves. Recognizing that such generic terms inevitably erase cultural, linguistic, and geographical differences, however, contributors to this book prefer whenever possible to use the name of the specific group, clan, tribe, nation, or linguistic community under discussion.

Most (although not all) of the Indigenous peoples who appear in this volume speak languages that belong to one of two overarching language families: Yupik and Inuit. Historically, the two families have been grouped into a category called “Eskimo,” a term still in use among linguists, although many now prefer the hyphenated term “Inuit-Yupik” (or “Yupik-Inuit”). The Inuit family divides into four main branches, each of which consists of a number of closely related dialects. Moving west to east, the four are Inupiaq, Inuvialuktun, Inuktitut, and Kalaallisut. The first, Inupiaq, is spoken in western coastal areas ranging from Norton Sound and the Seward Peninsula north to Kotzebue and the Kobuk River and then all across Alaska’s North Slope. (When the reference is to the dialects spoken north of the Seward Peninsula, “Inupiaq” is spelled “Iñupiaq” to reflect a characteristic shift in pronunciation.) Dialects of Inuvialuktun and Inuktitut are principally spoken in the Canadian North, the former chiefly in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and the latter in Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut. Kalaallisut is the prevailing dialect of the Inuit language spoken in Greenland. Note that, both culturally and linguistically, it is inaccurate to apply the term “Inuit” to speakers of Yupik languages and dialects.

The Yupik family comprises four languages (or groups of dialects): Naukan, Central Siberian Yupik, Central Alaskan Yup’ik, and Alutiiq. Of these, the Naukan language is critically endangered: its speakers, all of whom reside in far northeastern Russia, on the northernmost tip of the Chukotka Peninsula, now number well under a hundred. The Chukotka Peninsula is also home to one of the two dialects of Central Siberian Yupik, most commonly called the Chaplinski dialect, while the other is spoken on St. Lawrence Island— a large island in the Bering Sea that is officially part of the United States but geographically closer to Russia. Dialects of Central Alaskan Yup’ik— the apostrophe signals a slight elongation of the p sound not present in Central Siberian Yupik—are spoken in western Alaska south of the Seward Peninsula and on nearby Nunivak Island. Finally, Alutiiq (also called Sugpiaq) is spoken in southern coastal areas of Alaska, specifically along the Kenai Peninsula in the vicinity of Prince William Sound and to the southwest, on Kodiak Island and in the upper portion of the Alaska Peninsula.

In addition to Inuit and Yupik languages, many of the Indigenous peoples in Alaska and the Canadian North speak languages that belong to an entirely different family, which linguists have traditionally called Athabaskan (also spelled Athabascan—the standard spelling in Alaska—or Athapaskan). Especially in Canada, however, speakers of these languages increasingly prefer “Dene” to “Athabaskan,” as the former is an autonym while the latter is not. Dene/Athabaskan languages are spoken throughout the vast region of the Alaska Interior, as well as in Canada’s Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and the northern areas of the western provinces all the way to Manitoba.

It was only well into the post-contact era that these languages began to be written down in the roman alphabet (or, in Alaska, initially in the Cyrillic alphabet). Unsurprisingly, early Euro–North American explorers and missionaries transcribed words and names phonetically, without reference to any consistent orthographic conventions, given that none existed. The predictable result was multiple variations in the spelling of the same name or term. This was the situation faced in the mid-1970s by researchers in Alaska who were responsible for documenting historical places and cemetery sites identified in claims filed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). In this case, linguists associated with the Alaska Native Language Center, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, were able to assist ANCSA researchers by providing the correct spellings of Indigenous site names. These spellings were then typically highlighted in some way (by italic, boldface, or underlining) in final reports on the sites.

The practice endures with ANCSA researchers and has since been adopted by some other researchers in Alaska: Indigenous place and personal names are italicized when their spellings are known to conform to the standard orthographic system now used for the language in question. Not only does the italic serve to indicate that a given spelling is correct, but it also focuses attention on the importance of both accuracy and consistency in the representation of Indigenous names and terms. Fortunately, we have moved beyond the era in which Indigenous languages were actively suppressed, with Indigenous individuals assigned new, Christian names, and points on the landscape routinely rechristened. Vigorous and dedicated efforts are now underway to resuscitate and reclaim Indigenous languages that were (and in too many cases still are) hovering on the brink of extinction. We further hold that, if researchers who study Indigenous cultures seek to honour Indigenous languages, they must be willing to learn how to spell the words in them and, with the aid of a guide to the orthographic system in use, at least to approximate their pronunciation. As we embark on the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–32), making such a commitment seems more than merely appropriate: it is a matter of solidarity.