Volume 11, 1958 - The Arctic Circle - Home

VOL, XI No, Z THE ARCTIC CIRCULAR 17
to be Algonquin Indian, for "Raw Meat Eater", and was absorb Old into
French, being first used in 1611. A race can be defined by its language,
its physical type, or by how it lives and thinkS, or what anthropologists
call its material and intellectual culture. It is rare for thes e three
characteristics to coincide, for instance English is now spoken by many
other races as well as the English, and many races have a wide variety
of physical types, Among the Eskimos however there is a very good
agreement between all three characteristics. They have their own
language, spoken by themselves and by nobody else; they have a wellmarked
physical type; and they have a distinctive culture. Only in the
southwest part of their area are there any marked differences in these
characteristics,
The Eskimo Language
The Eskimo language is not related to any North American
Indian language and appears in fact to be unrelated to any other group
of languages. though attempts have been made to show a connection with
Uralian and with Indo -European. The grammar is very complicated, and
the meaning of words Can be modified by adding suffixes. For instance
tuktoo means "a caribou"; tuktoojuak is "a big caribou"; tuktoojuakseok
is "hunt a big caribou"; tuktoojuakseokniak" will hunt a big caribou"; tuktoojuakseo~