[OT] Inuit? Eskimo?

[Floyd Davidson]

Joost Kremers <joostkremers at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Skip Montanaro wrote:
>>     "Native American" is to "American Indian" as ______ is to "Eskimo".
>> 
>> Anyone in the .ca domain care to educate the .us folks?

The problem with the above is that there is no way to fill in
the blank and be correct!  The terms are reversed...

  "Native American" is to "American Indian"
   as "Eskimo" is to "Alutiiq".

WE can swap the term "Alutiiq" with a number of other terms,
such as Inuit, Yupik, Inupiat, Yupiaq.  And, we can swap
"American Indian" with such terms as "Eskimos", "Hawaiians",
"Samoans"...

>to the best of my knowledge, Inuit is the term that the original
>inhabitants of (northern) Canada and of Greenland use for themselves. in
>their language, Inuktitut, it is the plural of inut, which means 'man' or
>'person'.

The singular is "inuk".  It means a great deal more than just
"man" or "person".  (It means something on the nature of
"genuine man", as being a human with a human spirit, as opposed
to a human which is actually an animal temporarily masquerading
as a human for a short time.  The derivation has to do with an
"original owner" concept relating to ones spirit.)

>the word 'eskimo' was a pejorative term used by (non-inuit) peoples living
>further to the south on the american continent, and has the meaning 'eater
>of raw meat'. because of this origin, it is disfavoured.

That has always been a nice sounding reason for the derogatory
use of the term Eskimo by Canadians (blame it on Indians!);
however, it isn't true.

There are two theories as to the etymology of "Eskimo", and in
neither case is it in any way derogatory.  Ives Goddard at the
Smithsonian Institute believes it derives from Algonquin words
meaning "snowshoe netter", and Jose Mailhot from Quebec believes
it came from words meaning "people who speak a different
language".  Both are quite reasonable, and though I personally
tend to side with Mailhot, she publishes in French and is little
known compared to Goddard, and hence most dictionaries etc are
now using his definitions.

Whatever, in Canada all Eskimo people are in fact Inuit, and it
is considered impolite to call them anything else.  By the same
token, the *only* word in the English language which properly
describes all Eskimo people is the term "Eskimo".  "Inuit" does
not, because in Alaska there are many Eskimos who are not Inuit,
and in Siberia all Eskimos are Yupik.  Moreover, in Alaska the
Inupiat people, who are the same as the Canadian Inuit people,
simply do *not* like to be called Inuit!  (They use the word
Inupiat.)

It should also be noted that Alaska's Eskimo people are
virtually all rather fond of the term "Eskimo".

  Quayanaqpuk,
  Ap'a

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson           <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd at barrow.com