From Pangnirtung to Panniqtuuq

SARA MINOGUE

Twenty-five residents of Pangnirtung have petitioned to change the spelling of the community’s name to Panniqtuuq, which more accurately represents the name’s pronunciation.

The original meaning of Panniqtuuq – “the place of many bull caribou” – was lost in transliteration for years.

“To us it is sort of critical that people pronounce it right,” says Adamee Komoartuk, deputy mayor of Panniqtuuq. “If you don’t say it right it means nothing, and right now only local people are saying it right.”

Nunavut’s Languages Commissioner Eva Aariak commends the decision and says it’s a good example for other communities with “spellings that don’t illustrate the meaning of their name.”

The process for changing place names has been in place for some time. Iqaluit reverted to its Inuktitut name – “school of fishes” – in 1987. Other communities, such as Qikiqtarjuaq, Arviat, and Taloyoak have all officially changed to the Inuktitut names in recent years.

Inaccurate spelling is a common problem for Inuktitut words in Nunavut. For hamlets, the problem goes back to when each municipality was officially incorporated. Most of the paperwork took place before the ICI standard writing system was introduced in 1976, so administrators relied on educated guesses when filling out forms.

A few years ago, the Department of Justice initiated a program to allow individuals to change the spelling of their last names, free of charge. Aariak was one of the customers, changing her spelling from Arreak.

Aariak says she made the change because she’s “a strong believer in the ICI standards,” and to cut down on the number of strangers calling her “Areek.”

“My daughter even went as far as changing her English first name,” Aariak says. Carlene Arreak is now Karliiin Aariak.

“We have a very phonetic language, where when we write the words, we write it exactly the way it sounds,” Aariak says. “In reality, if you know the words properly and know how to write the words using the standardized writing system, there shouldn’t be such a thing as a spelling mistake.”

Yet Aariak can think of other errors that should be fixed, such as Kekerten Historic Park just south of Panniqtuuq. ICI standards would spell it Qikiqtan, which means “island” in Inuktitut.

Panniqtuuq’s hamlet council plans to approve the petition at a meeting on July 19, after which a larger petition will go to the GN for processing.