[PW] Re: Eskimo vs Inuit

[John P. Dyson]

This sounds like the rush to rectify another non-existent error that 
ensued over the word "squaw" some time back: fun to watch but not very 
enlightening.

John Dyson


Quoting Daphne Drewello <drewello at daktel.com>:

> Dian Borek wrote
>
>> I was told by an Inuit author that the word "Eskimo" means 'one who
>> eats raw fish' .....
>
>  You might be interested in this site
>
> http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxeskimo.html
>
> "Eskimo"
> by Mark Israel
>
>     [This is a fast-access FAQ excerpt.]
>
> It now seems unlikely that "Eskimo" means "eater of raw meat".
> Merriam-Webster changed its etymology when it brought out MWCD10,
> and referred me to an article by Ives Goddard in Handbook of
> North American Indians (Smithsonian, 1984), vol. 5, p. 5-7.
> Goddard cites the following Amerindian words:
>
> Montagnais ayassimew="Micmac"
> Plains Cree ayaskimew="Eskimo"
> Attikamek Cree ashkimew="Eskimo"
> North Shore Montagnais kachikushu or kachekweshu="Eskimo"
>   "not analysable but explained by speakers as meaning 'eater of
>   raw meat'"
> Ojibwa eshkipot="Eskimo" (literally "one who who eats raw")
> Algonquin Eastern Ojibwa ashkipok="Eskimo" (literally "raw
>   eaters")
>
>   Goddard writes:  "In spite of the tenacity of the belief, both
> among Algonquian speakers and in the anthropological and general
> literature [...] that Eskimo means 'raw-meat eaters', this
> explanation fits only the cited Ojibwa forms (containing Proto-
> Algonquian *ashk- 'raw' and *po- 'eat') and cannot be correct
> for the presumed Montagnais source of the word Eskimo itself. [...]
> The Montagnais word awassimew (of which ay- is a reduplication)
> and its unreduplicated Attikamek cognate exactly match Montagnais
> assimew, Ojibwa ashkime 'she nets a snowshoe', and an origin
> from a form meaning 'snowshoe-netter' could be considered if the
> original Montagnais application (presumably before Montagnais
> contact with Eskimos) were to Algonquians."
>
>   A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language by Bishop Frederic Baraga
> (Beauchemin & Valois, 1878) gives ashkime="I lace or fill
> snowshoes"; the phrase agim nind ashkima with the same meaning
> (agim is the noun for "snowshoe"); askimaneiab="babiche, strings
> of leather for lacing snowshoes"; and ashkimewin="art or
> occupation of lacing snowshoes".  But there are no other obvious
> cognates:  the words for "snowshoe", "lace", "leather", "net", and
> "string" are all unrelated.  In all other words beginning with
> "ashk-" or "oshk-", the prefix signifies "raw, fresh, new".
>
>   Eskimos' self-designations include:
>
>     singular  plural     language      places
>
>     Inuk      Inuit      Inuktitut     Canada, West Greenland
>     Inupiaq   Inupiat    Inupiaq       North Alaska
>     Inuvialuk Inuvialuit               Mackenzie Delta
>               Katladlit  Kalaallisut   Greenland
>     Yupik                Yupik         Southwest Alaska
>     Yuk       Yuit                     Siberia, St. Lawrence Island
>
> "Inuk" and "Yuk" mean simply "person"; "Inupiaq" and "Inuvialuk" mean
> "real, genuine person".
>
>   Goddard writes:  "In the 1970s in Canada the name Inuit all but
> replaced Eskimo in governmental and scientific publication and the
> mass media, largely in response to demands from Eskimo political
> associations.  The erroneous belief that Eskimo was a pejorative
> term meaning 'eater of raw flesh' had a major influence on this
> shift.  The Inuit Circumpolar Conference meeting in Barrow, Alaska,
> in 1977 officially adopted Inuit as a designation for all Eskimos,
> regardless of their local usages [...]."
>
>   For the the number of words the Eskimos supposedly have for snow,
> see the sci.lang FAQ, or the alt.folklore.urban archive under
> <http://www.urbanlegends.com>.
>
>
>
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