CBC North – Inuit languages — and how to preserve them in a culture increasingly dominated by English — are the focus of a Nunavut summit this week drawing experts from several circumpolar nations. About 200 delegates from Canada, Greenland and the United States are in Iqaluit for the Nunavut Language Summit, which began Tuesday and runs through Friday. The Nunavut government organized the conference because it wants to implement new laws aimed at making Inuit languages, including Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun, more prominent in the daily lives of Nunavummiut.

The topics to be discussed include: 1) Language development in children and youth; 2) language leadership, or how people can be good language role models; 3) standardizing the Inuit language, and 4) the Inuit languages in workplaces, media, culture and government.

Download: Programme, Feb. 8-12, 2010 (PDF).

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More information:

• Nunavut Government Press Release: “Nunavut Language Summit Announced” (Nov. 13, 2009).
• CBC: “Inuktitut standardization still hot topic in Nunavut” (Feb. 11, 2010).
• CBC: “Popular music a way to preserve Inuktitut” (Feb. 14, 2010).