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Former FLAS fellow now instructor of Inuit language

Headshot of Jason Young against a green, leafy background. He wears a white collared shirt under a gray wool jacket.

October 4, 2024

Jason Young, a former Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) recipient in Inuktut who spent two summers studying with Alexina Kublu in Igoolik, Nunavut, is instructing ARCTIC 101 Elementary Inuktut: Inuit Language and Culture in Canada this fall. He studied with Kublu, former language commission for Nunavut and Mick Mallon, one of Canada’s top linguists in the Inuit language.

This is the first in a series of three elementary-level language courses that Young will teach introducing students to basic communication skills in both oral and written Inuktut. Inuktut is the language of the Inuit, an Indigenous people of the Arctic that span Greenland, Canada, the United States, and Russia. The language itself is composed of many highly interrelated dialects, and this course will focus on the North Baffin dialect of Inuktitut common in Eastern Canada. 

Arctic 101 will provide students with strong foundation in the language, including through engagement with the following topics: phonology and morphology of the language; writing system; use of basic nouns, verbs, noun chunks, and verb chunks; use of non-specific and specific regular verb endings; and use of interrogative verb endings.

The Canadian Studies Center is the first and remains the only Center in the nation to offer courses in the Inuit language. To date, dozens of FLAS fellowships have been awarded for the study of Inuktut.