Labrador Inuit found “language nest”

IQALUIT — Labrador Inuit are fighting to save their language.

With only a handful of elders speaking Inuktitut, Labrador’s Inuit communities are pushing to get young people to learn their native tongue.

That’s why they’ve created a “language nest” — a program in which young infants are paired up with two Inuktitut speakers for eight hours a day.

According to CBC radio in Newfoundland, three babies from Hopedale will take part in the language nest.

There are few young people in Hopedale who are fluent in Inuktitut. Primary school students in Hopedale are taught Inuktitut, but many of them enter the school system with English as their first language and thus have difficulty regaining their native language.