Inuit language word games make learning fun

Scrabalics, a cooperative game for two to four players, which was designed by Inuuqatigiit Inuktitut Publishing for Inuit Tungasuvvingat, encourages players to speak Inuktitut and to learn and practice Inuktitut syllabics. (PHOTO COURTESY OF J. MCGRATH)

Scrabalics, a cooperative game for two to four players, was designed by Inuuqatigiit Inuktitut Publishing for Inuit Tungasuvvingat to encourage players to speak Inuktitut and to learn and practice Inuktitut syllabics. (PHOTO COURTESY OF J. MCGRATH)

“Kina pigiaqqaarumava?” Who wants to start?

That’s the question you may start to hear more often in Inuktitut as Scrabalics, a new board game inspired by Scrabble, becomes more widely available in Canada’s North.

Inuuqatigiit Inuktitut Publishing in Arnprior, Ontario created the board game for Tunngasuvvingat Inuit, the Ottawa-based organization that provides Inuktitut services to Inuit in Ottawa and other southern cities.

Designed to teach Inuktitut, as well as the traditional values of co-operation and respect, Scrabalics encourages players to speak Inuktitut and work together.

Scrabalics also offers beginners a way to learn Inuktitut by having fun.

The word game also lets Inuktitut speakers appreciate what it’s like to learn the language, said Inuuqatigiit’s Janet McGrath, who learned Inuktitut as a child in Taloyoak.

There, McGrath remembers playing a similar Scrabble-like board game in Inuktitut at in the 1970s.

McGrath said she couldn’t find any existing copy of this game, (which may have been made in Baker Lake, she thinks), so by memory she came up with a similar prototype of her favourite childhood board game, which was tried out— with success— during a spring break camp that Inuuqatigiit offered in 2009.

Scrabalics isn’t quite like the conventional game of Scrabble, McGrath explains.

For example, players can trade tiles — which each display a syllabic character —as much as they want, “but only if you speak and negotiate in Inuktitut.”

For beginner Inuktitut speakers, there’s also a Scrabalics dictionary to give them some ideas for words.

Only 100 Scrabalics games were produced during the first run of the board game— but now 500 to 1,000 more are in the works, and may be available for the public to buy as well, McGrath said.

There are also plans for Scrabalics to be created in two more dialects of Inuktitut (for now, it’s only available in North Baffin) and in Innuinaqtun.

In addition to Scrabalics, Inuugatigiit has also produced the board game “Ottawami”— or “in Ottawa.”

In this game, Ottawa has been covered with river rocks, and it’s up to the players to work together to save the city.

Players can remove the rocks after following the instructions on the cards they draw.

And the instructions all involve speaking Inuktitut, with three levels of fluency to choose from.

Players of different levels can play together— and, in fact, that’s the best way for everyone, McGrath said.

Advanced speakers might get a read a card asking them for five words in Inuktitut for object used in sewing.

“So someone who is new to Inuktitut will hear five new words, and maybe recognize one, which is very encouraging to them, but maybe they’ll remember one,” McGrath said.

Intermediate speakers could be asked to say “thank you” in two dialects, while a beginner could have to come up with three words that English has borrowed.

“The whole purpose of that is to speak Inuktitut,” McGrath said.

The game is over when the river rocks are all cleared from the game board, and each player counts their rocks. The one with the most rocks is the winner.

“But we are all winners for saving the city and helping to strengthen Inuktitut,” the game’s instructions guide says. “Remember, Ottawa wins, everybody wins!”

While the game is only Ottawa-specific, McGrath said Inuuqatigiit, working with TI, can adapt this game for another town or city, or create a dialect-specific version.

In the works is an Inuit version of the popular game monopoly. This game will teach players about Inuit language and culture.

“It’s really the opposite of Monopoly, which is about getting things and owning things. This is about cooperating, learning Inuktitut and collaborating,” McGrath said.

Instead of earning fake money, trying to avoid bankcruptcy and end up as “rich” as possible, in this board game, as you move around the board, you can also earn fur or meat— as a way of representing the mixed economy in the North, McGrath said.

And instead of buying houses with your money, as is done in Monopoly, in this new Inuit language version of the board game, you could earn an igloo.

But you won’t get too attached to it because, come summer, it’s going to melt, McGrath cautioned.

This Monopoly-like board game should be ready in a pilot version by the end of the year.

For more information about any of these Inuktitut-learning board games contact, contact: Inuuqatigiit Publishing at: Inuuqatigiit.publishing@gmail.com.

Connie Siedule and Christine Lund from Tungasuvvingat Inuit and Janet McGrath from Inuuqatigiit Inuktitut Publishing stand on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last summer, on their way to bring new Inuktitut-learning board games to MP Leona Aglukkaq. (PHOTO COURTESY OF J. MCGRATH)