Eskimo Trade Jargon
Inuit pidgin of Canada From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Eskimo Trade Jargon was an Inuit pidgin used by the Mackenzie River Inuit as a trade language with the Athabaskan peoples to their south, such as the Gwich'in (Loucheux). It was reported by Stefánsson (1909), and was apparently distinct from the Athabaskan-based Loucheux Jargon of the same general area.[1]
| Eskimo Trade Jargon | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Western Canadian Arctic, northern Alaska |
| Ethnicity | Inuit, European whalers |
North Alaskan Iñupiaq-based pidgin | |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | eski1266 |
A reduced form of the pidgin was used for ships' trade at Herschel Island off the Arctic coast near Alaska.[2]
Eskimo Trade Jargon formed as European whalers interacted with the local Inuit peoples during the 19th century, likely helped by the difficulty europeans had learning Inuit languages. The pidgin went extinct sometime in the 20th century.[3][4]
As Eskimo Trade Pidgin emerged in several locations simultaneously the various areas it emerged in had different dialects of the pidgin. These dialects included: Herschel Island Pidgin, Point Barrow Pidgin, Kotzebue Pidgin, and Point Hope pidgin. While Eskimo Trade Jargon was similar to Slavey Jargon it was different enough that there wasn't enough mutual intelligibility to allow for communication between the two Pidgins[3]
The Lexicon of ETJ is very diverse, while most words are from either an Inuit language or English words from other languages are found. Of all the Inuit languages the one with the most vocabulary in ETJ is North Slope dialect of Iñupiaq. Other contributing languages include Hawaiian Pidgin, Chinook Jargon, Danish, Portuguese, and possibly Old Icelandic.[4]
Words would often undergo significant changes after being loaned into Eskimo Trade Jargon, making them unrecognizable from their original forms. Examples being the words u' ra and pau' from the English words Rice and powder respectively.[3]
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