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Last Updated:Thursday, August 14, 2003

Pronunciation of Inuit Names

There is similiar languages for most of the Inuit. However it can be pronounced in other ways than is shown. In particular the Yapuks in the Yukon and a couple of tribes in Alaska would definitely have different pronounciation than those shown.

The really fun pages on Cat Names (by Culture) researched by Dominic Marks and found at Magic Names for Mystic Cats was very helpful in getting nuances correct.

The conventions to convey phonetic sounds are these:

• The accentuated syllable is capitalized.
• A capitalized vowel is pronounced as the name of the letter so Kate is KAT and cat is KaT.
• If a letter or a group of letters is nearly silent (a schwa by international phonetic conventions) or is silent then it or they are represented by a single quote '.
• For example the English word emphasized is rendered as eM Fa sIz'd

The official pronounciation rules are these:

• K - The k has two distinctly different pronounciations. The first one is that of the k in king, vg. ikkitit, matches; the second one is pronounced deep in the throat. It is very similar to a Kr and we have written it thus.
• The second last syllable is stressed usually.
• J and Y - The j and the y are interchangeable and should be pronounced as y in you.
• S - The s is generally pronounced as sh, eg. amisut (amishut). Some bands in the Eskimo Point region pronounce it as an h, vg. asso (aHo).
• I - the i is pronounced as ee, vg. inuk (eenuk).
• U - the u is pronounced oo as in shoot, or better as in the latin "una".
• NG - The ng is pronounced with a single sound, as in singing and never as in "ungodly".
• DLERK - at the end of a word is pronounced like TSLERK. It is in fact the only really difficult pronounciation, along perhaps with the KR.

Name	Pronunciation
Adlet	ad LET
Agloolik	ah GLU lEk
Aipaloovik	A pa LU vEk
Agu'gux	ah GU'gus
Akna	ahk Na
Anguta	ahn Guh tah
Arnakua'gsak	ahrn ah KRUa'g shahk
Aulanerk	ahoo Lan erk
Aumanil	au MAHN El
Keelut	KRE lUt
Nerrivik	ner RE vEk
Nootaikok	nU tah Ekrok
Pukkeenegak	pUk krE ne gahk
Qiqirn	KE Kern
Sedna	SHeD nah
Sila Inua	shE lah E nU ah
Tarquiup Inua	tar KE Up E NU ah
Tekkeitsertok	tek KRe ET sher Tok
Tootega	tU te Gah
Tornarsuk	TUR nar shUk
Torngasoak	torn GaH shU ahk

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