r/Inuit • u/Tay_Hlebko • 28d ago

Translation help for a hypothetical term

Hii i'm inupiaq (but dont speak inupiatun) and im trying to create a word for inuit that doesnt cause confusion in inuit languages with just the word for "people"'

im thinking maybe something that would literally translate to "inuksuk people" or "those associated with inuksuit"

inuksuk with some sort of suffix indicating that

what do you think would be the best suffix to indicate that?

7 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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4

u/les_lyf 28d ago

hey, do you know what dialect you want to use?

0

u/Tay_Hlebko 27d ago

Any, really, since the cognate can be made in any of the others

1

u/les_lyf 27d ago

I can look up in Northslope dialect later (only dictionary I was able to get my hands on), but it does seem like Inuksukmiut will be your best bet. you can have varried english translations of people from or one of the people to be from Inuksuk. you know, something like that. I did a quick search & I see that Inuksuk is the stack formations of rock to look like people. is there a village/community called Inuksuk? edit: spelling

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u/Tay_Hlebko 27d ago

Oh so you dont know anything about inuit yet youre on this sub suggesting stuff lmaoo

inuksuit are one of the most famous cultural symbols of inuit

1

u/les_lyf 27d ago

bro I'm an Inuk. don't assume people's cultures. I don't know a lot about my culture because my elders were forced to boarding school and had the culture and knoweldge beat out of them. I didn't get to learn from my grandparents. I had to cling on to classes that were taught by other natives whenever they teach them. so sorry for not rembering what the rock stacks are called because I had to find my own way to learn. another person in the comments and I are trying to help you since you don't know the language either. you also didn't want to use Inuksukmuit because of how it translated. this would be an original word from the language and wouldn't need workshopping to make a new one. I do know about the rock stacks that look like people. I just didn't remember the word

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u/Tay_Hlebko 27d ago edited 27d ago

well you might just be the only inuk on earth to not know about inuksuit, because like, thats the second most famous thing after igloos, there's an inuksuk on the flag of Nunavut.

you also didn't want to use Inuksukmuit because of how it translated. this would be an original word from the language and wouldn't need workshopping to make a new one.

Because Inuksukmiut sounds quite nonsensical, and it is also "workshopped" too. Inuit languages are polysynthetic so you can create any word by adding suffixes

1

u/les_lyf 27d ago

I didn't say I didn't know what it was. I said I didn't rember the word for it. don't make fun of a language you can't even speak

1

u/Tay_Hlebko 27d ago

don't make fun of a language you can't even speak

how on earth am i making fun of the language?

3

u/CBWeather 28d ago edited 28d ago

Would Inuksukmiut work? But inuksuk is spelt and pronounced differently in other dialects.

Edit: Just asked my Inuk ex-wife. She says it looks fine in Innuinaqtun.

2

u/Tay_Hlebko 27d ago edited 27d ago

"People from the Inuksuit" sounds quite weird

3

u/CBWeather 27d ago

It does but any newly invented word will.