ICC shouldn’t give up on language work

In Nunavut, the syllabic writing system is one of the most treasured legacies of the colonial period.

Invented by Anglican missionaries as an easy way to teach Inuit how to read the Bible, it spread rapidly across what is now Nunavik, Baffin and Kivalliq. Canadian Inuit consider the syllabic system to be theirs, and most are still opposed to the idea of giving it up.

This poses a big problem, to say the least, for the Inuit Circumpolar Conference’s language commission, which for the past decade has been studying the idea of a common circumpolar writing system for the Inuit language.

The development of such a writing system wouldn’t necessarily mean that a Roman writing system would replace syllabics. It’s possible that two parallel systems could co-exist.

But in Nunavut, the idea is perceived as a threat. That perception may not be entirely rational, but it’s a perception that matters.

Before the start of last week’s ICC gathering in Kuujjuaq, Nunavut’s minister of culture, language, elders and youth, Jack Anawak, spoke to ICC’s outgoing president, Aqqaluk Lynge, and told him that the Nunavut government has serious concerns with the ICC’s proposals for a common writing system.

Those concerns are numerous, and mostly based on various forms of fear. They include the fear that orthographic standardization might destroy local dialects, the fear that Nunavut’s education department won’t have the money to pay for a transition from syllabics to Roman, and the fear that non-school-attenders would have no chance to learn a new writing system.

There are other reasons, but you get the idea: in Nunavut, language standardization is a non-starter.

Many Nunavut leaders already know this. In 1989, when the ICC began to talk about language standardization, the idea was supported by at least some Canadian Inuit leaders. At the community level, however, the idea went nowhere.

In its two Footprints reports, the Nunavut Implementation Commission tried to figure out how to make the Inuit language an official language of the Nunavut government. As part of that work, they had to look at the idea of translating all of Nunavut’s statutes into the Inuit language. But what writing system and what dialect would be used?

Given that people in the western Kitikmeot use a type of Roman orthography, not syllabics, that’s a difficult question, and the NIC never answered it. But they did recommend that one writing system eventually be adopted for the translation of the Nunavut government’s laws.

In 1997, the NIC sponsored a large and, no doubt, expensive, language conference in Iqaluit. Delegates representing every community in Nunavut, as well as most of the organizations concerned with culture and language, packed Iqaluit’s cadet hall for a week. The pile of written submissions presented by various individuals and organizations stands nearly two feet high.

Although delegates talked about the designation of one writing system for all of Nunavut, they didn’t really reach consensus on it.

But they did make a recommendation that could point the way toward a compromise position that might make it possible for Nunavut to one day support the work of the ICC language commission.

That recommendation is that syllabics and Roman orthography be taught simultaneously throughout the Nunavut school system — that Nunavut school children learn both ways of writing at the same time. When circumpolar leaders are ready to reach consensus on a common, circumpolar writing system, this could be a way of convincing Nunavut residents that language standardization does not mean the death of syllabics.

So the ICC’s language commission should not give up on the idea of a common writing system. As Aqqaluk Lynge said on CBC radio last week, it’s probably the only way to guarantee the long-term survival of the Inuit language.

JB