Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Divine Inspiration: Inventing Religious Terminology Across The Arctic
In West Greenlandic, the word "church" is oqaluffik, literally, "place of much talking." In Aleut, "house of prayer" is kamgax, related to the messenger feast tradition. The word for "angel" translates as "winged one" in Central Alaskan Yupik, but as "big breath" in Inuktitut. All across the Arctic, Eskimo and Aleut peoples have found native ways of expressing new religious concepts, but they have done so in markedly different ways. In this paper, we compare terminology in order to shed light on the differences in the experiences of the various groups of speakers.