Before you go thinking I’ve
made today’s lesson as easy as plucking it from a stop sign found in Nunavut, Canada – think twice. I wish things could
be just that easy and all the world could understand and communicate fluidly and fluently in the various tongue of one
another, but such is not true and we must continue to broaden our minds and sharpen our skills by learning the native
language of even the most uncommonly used words. No matter how dizzy and long today’s word may be I know that our
struggle to become more knowledgeable travelers is not in vain. We may stop, pause, or ask someone to speak a little
slower, but we shall proceed.
Today’s phrase is an Inuktitut phrase used in Canada:
quviasuktunga
tamaaniinnama – I am happy to be here.
I confess, looking at that phrase gives me a slight
headache. While it seems almost equivalent to the word scrambles commonly found in the Sunday papers, Inuktitut words as
noted from this Nunavut.com site are more "like
Lego blocks, intricate pieces locked together to produce a nugget of meaning." Wow, I’d certainly say so. Wiki breaks things down further with in depth info on terrirtories
where the language is heard in Canada, differences between Inukitut and the Inuit heard in Greendland and Alaska and
includes pictures of the alphabet. Learning this one on the web will be tough, but for those who wish to tackle such
linguistic feats check out the links above and some of these last few: Nunavut Living Dictionary, Inkutitut Syllabarium, the Inukitut Morphology List which holds the key
to one of the best online dictionaries for getting started.