Last Day - Inuinnaqtun

It is Friday morning, my last day in the Arctic. For now, anyway.  I am happy to be going home, but also sad to be leaving all of the wonderful people I have met. I love being up here and meeting so many interesting people and hearing their stories. It is a completely different culture that I have been experiencing and I feel that I have learned a lot and will continue to learn even more on my future trips. Right now it is time for me to go home and recharge.

I will leave you with a little language lesson. My clerk, and friend, Helen would give me lessons whenever we had some downtime, so I will pass on a little about what I learned.

Inuinnaqtun is the dialect spoken in this region. It is similar to Inuktitut, but definitely not the same and they do not use syllabics either. Here are some common words and phrases to try!

• Kanogitpin - How are you?
• Namaktunga - I'm fine, thank you.
• Ilvitli - and you?
• Ublagot - Good morning.
• Ublugon - Good afternoon.
• Ullapa - I'm cold!
• Quana - Thanks!

Helen's dog is called Umiak, this means whiskers. I have decided that the next animal that finds its way into my home will be called Umiak! So cute!