MICHÈLE THERRIEN

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Paris

How lexical features in Inuktituk can inform us on the experience of remembering

I will focus on the way Inuit Elders speak about memory relying on short excerpts of their discourse concerning remembering, retaining, refreshing one’s memory, and so on. Concentrating on this specific semantic field, I will use the new Serie Innarniq apiqsuqattarniq/Interviewing Elders produced by Inuit language and Culture Program, Nunavut Arctic College, Iqaluit.

I will try to answer the following questions : What can we learn by paying attention to the words chosen by the Elders? Which notions and concepts the terminology related to « remembering » can shed light on? The enquiry seems legitimate taking into account the fact that all languages show interesting distinctions concerning knowledge.