Talk:Eskimo-Aleut languages

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Inuit is *not* an acceptable term for all Eskimo peoples. It is only acceptable for Eskimos of the Eastern Canadian Arctic. I have talked to non-Inuit Eskimos who are constantly irritated that people try to be politically correct and call them "Inuit" when the "Inuit" are a different people than they are.

"Eskimo" is still used by scientists and linguists and anthropologists to refer to all Eskimo groups, while the use of "Inuit" is limited to refering to Eskimos of the Eastern Canadian Arctic. Node ue 01:42, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)

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Is there anything these people wish to be called other than Eskimo? --Saforrest 22:24, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)

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Collectively, no. Many Eastern Canadian Eskimos prefer the term Inuit, and many Alaskan Eskimos prefer the term Yup'ik. --Node 08:05, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

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To be more accurate, both Eastern and Western Canadian Eskimos are quite happy with the term Inuit, as are, I believe, some of the western Alaskan Eskimos. I think it depends mostly on language. Those who speak Inuktitut-In~upiaq are Inuit, those that speak Yup'ik are Yup'ik. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.254.128.4 (talk • contribs).

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62.254.128.4's quite right. I'd go a step further, and say that among English-speaking Canadians today, 'Eskimo' is nearly as unacceptable as 'nigger'. Western Inuit often prefer to be called Inuvialuit, but as far as I know there's no mood in Canada for reverting to the name 'Eskimo'. I can't imagine any of my friends in Canada saying that other than as an insult. (The French equivalent esquimaux isn't quite as unacceptable, but it's moving that way...) QuartierLatin1968 22:08, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

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What's this absurd fuss about? "Eskimo" is nothing more than a Cree word eskwimwew "eaters of raw meat". What did Inuit eat all these thousands of years if it was not raw meat?? Is it racist simply because the Inuit didn't get along with the Cree and therefore don't like Cree names for things? Can anyone respond to this site talking about the origins of the word[1]?

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 [...]."

--Glengordon01 07:16, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

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Recent classifications have placed Inuit as a fifth (?) branch of Yuppik. I think that's well supported, but don't have the info on hand. kwami 09:44, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The Asian emigration of Eskimo-Aleut peoples

An edit was made recently on the article that suggested that Eskimo-Aleut (EA) could have come over as early as 15,000 years ago. Yet this is too extreme to be believed and contradicts the current linguistic evidence now. Joseph Greenberg's work can say nothing on the matter because mass comparison is simply not considered secure evidence by linguists, however the data collected in recent books like that of Michael Fortescue (Language Relations across Bering Strait, 1998) seem to suggest that EA came over recently, even as late as 4000 years ago (see Uralo-Siberian languages). Greenberg has to be forgotten now. We live in the 21st century, not 1950, people! /:P --Glengordon01 09:18, 17 August 2006 (UTC)