ALANA JOHNS
Rigolet Inuttut: On the Brink
In Rigolet Labrador, a few remaining elders speak Rigolet Inuttut, a variety of Labrador Inuttut which is somewhat distinct from the rest Labrador. The language which has been replacing it is English. In this paper I will survey the linguistic issues which surround that distinctness, as well as the efforts which are being made by the community to retain their language. Crucially members of the community, as well as linguists, are part of the process. Whether they will succeed or not is not clear.
The dialect of Inuttut spoken in Rigolet was first described in Dorais 1977. It appeared at first as if this dialect was losing uvular/velar distinctions. Dresher and Johns 1999 show that the uvular/velar distinction, which is so fundamental to Inuit phonological contrast, has been reanalysed in the Rigolet dialect to be the result of phonological conditioning, rather than the source. This produces the many seeming mismatches between the presence of uvular or velar stops when compared to neighbouring dialects.
In the same way that Rigolet has its own version of phonological patterning, it also has its own version of mood reanalysis. In western dialects the use of participial vs. indicative mood is conditioned by some marked semantics of the indicative. In northern Labrador Inuttut, the difference is conditioned by a combination of person plus marked indicative. In Rigolet Inuttut the difference centres around the telicity of the verb. A telic verb such a tikik- arrive takes the indicative, while an atelic verb such as nigi- eat takes the participial. The non-standard nature of this dialect, and lack of political power has meant that it has been marginalized for some time within the Labrador community. In fact, it is commonly thought that people there just speak funny. Efforts of linguists to identify and describe the distinct characteristics of this dialect before it dies out have had a welcome side effect. Adult children of speakers in the community who are passive bilinguals (Johns and Mazurkewich 2001) have taken these non-standard characteristics as compelling reasons to try to preserve their language within their own community. The once non-standard characteristics have been reinterpreted as a clarion call for language maintenance. While this view is linguistically accurate, the urgent need to preserve the language entails that the community must face the possible prospect of adopting the dialect of the northern Labrador, which has the population numbers, teachers, and teaching materials.
This paper touches upon the issue of linguistic standard and it role in language maintenance.
References
Dorais, L.-J. 1977. Le parler inuit de Rigolet
(Labrador). Etudes/Inuit/Studies 1, 113-117.
Dresher, B. E. and A. Johns. 1999. Rigolet and Phonological Change in Labrador. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 20, 113-121.
Johns, A. and Mazurkewich, I. 2001. The Role of the University in the Training of Native Language Teachers: Labrador. In L. Hinton and K. Hale, eds. The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. San Diego: Academic Press.