Résumés
Abstract
This article investigates the various senses and derivations of the term nuna in the Inuit-Yupik languages in order to reveal its origin in referring to the Arctic tundra. These languages arguably derive from that of the ancestors of the earliest inhabitants of the North American tundra, other inhabitants of the circumpolar Arctic today having only moved up at later times. Likely etymological correspondences in Eurasian languages of the far north support the original meaning of the word, whose connotations can be contrasted with those of English land, by which it is usually translated. They include reference to the unique vegetation of the Arctic tundra and to settlement and migratory movements across it in the past. The word has survived through millennia as far apart as mountainous East Greenland and the Aleutian Islands chain, where it has been adapted (as Unangan tanaX) to the archipelagic setting. It is suggested that the term nunamiut, literally “tundra dwellers,” can suitably be applied to speakers of all these languages still today.
Keywords:
- Land,
- nuna,
- tundra,
- Eskaleut languages,
- Nunavut,
- etymology
Résumé
Les sens et dérivations diverses du terme nuna dans les langues Inuit et Yupik sont le sujet de cette enquête qui montre que nuna renvoie originalement à la toundra arctique. Ces langues proviennent de celle des ancêtres des habitants plus anciens de la toundra nord-américaine. Les autres habitants de l’Arctique circumpolaire aujourd’hui n’y sont arrivés que plus tard. Des correspondances étymologiques probables dans les langues autochtones du Nord-eurasiatique apportent leur soutien au sens original, dont les connotations contrastent avec celles du mot land en anglais, par lequel on traduit habituellement nuna. Celles-ci comprennent une référence à la végétation unique de la toundra arctique ainsi qu’à l’habitation et aux mouvements migratoires à travers elle dans le passé. Le mot a survécu pendant des milliers d’années entre des régions si éloignées que les montagnes du Groenland oriental et les îles aléoutiennes, où il s’est adapté (comme Unangan tanaX) à l’environnement d’archipel. L’article suggère que le terme nunamiut, littéralement « les habitants de la toundra » peut s’appliquer convenablement à ceux qui parlent toujours ces langues-là aujourd’hui.
Mots-clés:
- Territoire,
- nuna,
- toundra,
- langues eskaléoutes,
- Nunavut,
- étymologie
Parties annexes
References
- Badten, Linda Womkon, Vera OoviKaneshiro, Marie Oovi, and Christopher Koonooka, 2008 St. Lawrence Island/Siberian Yupik Eskimo Dictionary. Fairbanks, Alaska Native Language Center.
- Bergsland, Knut, 1994 Aleut Dictionary. Fairbanks, Alaska Native Language Center Press.
- Berthelsen, Christian, Birgitte Jacobsen, Robert Petersen, Inge Kleivan, and Jørgen Rischel1997 Oqaatsit, Grønlandsk Dansk Ordbog. Nuuk, Atuakkiorfik/Ilinniusiorfik.
- Buck, Carl Darling, 1949–1988 A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
- Dahl, Jens, Jack Hicks, and Peter Jull (eds.), 2000 Nunavut: Inuit Regain Control of their Lands and their Lives. Copenhagen, IWGIA, Document 102.
- Fortescue, Michael, 1988 Eskimo Orientation Systems. Copenhagen, Meddelelser om Grønland, Man and Society 11.
- Fortescue, Michael, 1991 Inuktun: An Introduction to the Language of Qaanaaq, Thule. Copenhagen, Institut for Eskimologis Skriftraekke 15.
- Fortescue, Michael, 2005 Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. Berlin and New York, Mouton de Gruyter.
- Fortescue, Michael, Lawrence Kaplan, and Steven Jacobson, 2010 (1994) Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates. Fairbanks, Alaska Native Language Center Press.
- Fortescue, Michael, and Edward Vajda, Forthcoming. Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America. Leiden, Brill.
- Jacobson, Steven, 1984 Yup’ik Eskimo Dictionary. Fairbanks, Alaska Native Language Center.
- Janhunen, Juha, 1977 “Samojedischer Wortschatz”. Castrenianumin toimitteita 17.
- Janhunen, Juha, 2009 “Proto-Uralic: What, Where, and When?,” The Quasquicentennial of the Finno-Ugrian Society, Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 258: 57–78.
- Lebedintsev, A.L., 1998 “Maritime Cultures of the North Coast of the Sea of Okhotsk,” Arctic Anthropology 35 (1): 296–320.
- MacLean, Edna, 1980 Abridged Iñupiaq and English Dictionary. Fairbanks, Alaska Native Language and Iñupiat Language Commission, North Slope Borough.
- Menovščikov, G.A.1964 Jazyk sirenikskix eskimosov. Moskva, Nauka.
- Nikolaeva, Irina, 2006 A Historical Dictionary of Yukaghir. Berlin and New York, Mouton de Gruyter.
- Robbe, Pierre, and Louis-Jacques Dorais, 1986 Tunumiit Oraasiat: The East Greenlandic Inuit Language. Québec, Centre d’études nordiques, Université Laval.
- Sammallahti, Pekka, 1988 “Historical Phonology of the Uralic Languages.” In The Uralic Languages, edited by D. Sinor, 478–554. Leiden and New York, Brill.
- Schneider, Lucien, 1985 Ulirnaisigutiit. An Inuktitut-English Dictionary of Northern Quebec, Labrador and Eastern Arctic Dialects. Québec, Les Presses de l’Université Laval.
- Schultz-Lorentzen, C.W., 1927 Dictionary of the West Greenlandic Eskimo Language. København, C.A. Reitzels Forlag.
- Spink, John, and D.W. Moodie, 1972 Eskimo Maps from the Canadian Eastern Arctic. Ottawa, University of Ottawa, Cartographica monograph no. 5.