Roman orthography could save Inuktitut

I do some translations from Inuktitut to English. I enjoy doing the work wholeheartedly. I feel that I’m preserving the language when I do some translations.

I believe the only way to preserve the Inuktitut language is to stop using syllabics and just simplify it and use Roman orthography, much like our neighbors, the people from Greenland. They are more fluent in their Inuktitut language and still use most of the original Inuktitut words. Both Inuit and non-Inuit are very fluent in Inuktitut in those communities.

The Roman Catholic missionaries were very fluent in Inuktitut and were more eager to learn, because they were using the Roman orthography writing system, which they could actually read and learn on their own.

If the Government of Nunavut wants to promote our Inuktitut language to the next level, they should honestly strike out all the syllabics that a guy named Edmund Peck created. It could also save the GN a lot of money by cutting the cost of Inuktitut publications without trying to keep up with the Inuktitut fonts in computers.

The Inuktitut language would again become more popular within both the Inuit communities and of those non-Inuit alike. It would open doors for people who want to learn the Inuktitut language; it would definitely be more convenient for everyone.

I believe it could interest the young people and people who want to learn the language, both written and verbally. It could help with both the Inuktitut and English reading, because they are learning the same sounds and letters.

Almost everyone I know who is bilingual, prefers to read English text rather than Inuktitut syllabics, because it is much faster to read. Symbols and syllabics make it slower for the human brain to comprehend.

We could still preserve the Inuktitut language tradition with a different writing system.

Angela Nutarak
Iqaluit