North Slope Iñupiaq Dictionary available online

The new North Slope Iñupiaq Dictionary is now available for free download from the Alaska Native Language Archive. Comprising nearly 1500 pages, this work stands as one of the major dictionaries for any Alaska Native language. While many people have contributed to the dictionary over the past four decades, work on the completion of the dictionary has been spearheaded by Dr. Edna Maclean, with funding from a National Science Foundation grant to Michael Krauss.

The main entries are organized by root, with separate sections for postbases and endings. Most significantly, the dictionary includes 22 illustrated appendices indicating names for such esoteric terms as compass winds, parts of the skull, and parts of an igloo. As an example, consider the following illustration from Appendix 19.

This illustration shows names for the various parts of the whale which can be shared out. Raised numerals refer to explanatory footnotes which can be found in the text.

Illustrations such as these make the dictionary a wonderful cultural resource, something more akin to an encyclopaedia than just a mere dictionary.

Item IN(N)971M2011

This dictionary serves as the primary source for entries in the Iñupiat Word Finder App, which we reviewed recently.