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Kitikmeot Heritage Society and Pinnguaq launch new Inuinnaqtun app

The new app available on Google Play and Apple is designed for different learning styles for all ages

Language enthusiasts are excited over the launch of Pinnguaq’s new downloadable app to learn Inuinnaqtun.

The Inuinnaqtun Dictionary, available on Apple and Google Play, was developed by the Kitikmeot Heritage Society (KHS) with help from Pinnguaq, a tech start-up, founded in Pangnirtung in 2012. 

“It’s something that the heritage society had imagined that there was a use for something like this for quite awhile,” said Daniel Taro, social enterprise stage coordinator for Pinnguaq. “It also met our goals as an organization.” 

Lyndsey Friesen, the communications and philanthropy manager for KHS, said that in the conception stages of the project, the original intent had in fact been to develop a web page. 

"In 2021, we never envisioned an app per se... having an app is so much better as a way to access information that is constantly changing."

Pinnguaq endeavours to “provide play experiences in Indigenous languages.” The app was also sponsored by the Government of Nunavut, the Government of Canada, Polar Knowledge and the ArcticNet Inuit Nunnagat Research Program.

"The funding was really to document Inuinnaqtun," said Friesen. 

“We believe in working alongside rural, remote and Indigenous communities for software development,” Taro added. “When they were in the discovery process, [developers] were able to connect with actual language speakers. There are only a few hundred of these speakers left. It was important to make this as accurate as possible.”

Inuinnaqtun is spoken in the central Arctic region, and related closely to Inuktitut. Some experts classify it as a dialect, primarily used in Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, and Gjoa Haven. It's written in Roman orthography, except for Gjoa Haven, which uses syllabics. 

The app operates in a few ways, and is designed to engage learners of all ages with various learning styles. There’s different ways to research words: the starting letter, the English definition, suffixes and affixes, and a sound component.

"When you have a dictionary, you have to buy a new one with each edition," said Friesen. "With an app, you can download it, it's free, and we think people will be able to interact in a way that has not been done before.

"The younger generation is very active on their smartphones, so this is a way of meeting their needs, [having them look] something up their phone when they need information. So the app is an extension of that."

The app was created “not necessarily [for] the demand. It’s not something we’re looking to make a long-lasting return on," Friesen added. "It’s about language and culture preservation. Of course, we hope there is a demand and the demand grows.”



Kira Wronska Dorward

About the Author: Kira Wronska Dorward

I attended Trinity College as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, graduating in 2012 as a Specialist in History. In 2014 I successfully attained a Master of Arts in Modern History from UofT..
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