Revitalization Effort

It is unknown how many L2 speakers of IUR exist, though it seems from the existing research that there is a complex community of both deaf and hearing speakers. As was previously mentioned, there are public educational resources available to second-language speakers. By existing accounts, hearing speakers use IUR in order to communicate effectively w/ deaf members of their local community.

Currently the Canadian Deafness Research and Training Institute (CDRTI) provides IUR learning resources online in the form of videos of FLA users in the language, Flashcards, a Memory game, etc. (CDRTI website). They also ran several workshops and focus groups concerning IUR, with the latest listed on their website having taken place in 2018. Additionally, the CDRTI’s website describes joint programs with the Nunavut Deaf Society, but I have been unable to locate a website or any other information about it aside from a few news articles referring to it.

Though we have not found explicit legislation enabling the right to IUR use in court settings, according to McDougall in 2010 a monolingual speaker of IUR was provided suitable interpretation, allowing him a fair trial (Letter to Nunatsiaq Online, 2010). Information on IUR programs supported by the Canadian government post ~2014 has been sparse, but the department of justice had sponsored a research project on the language c.a. 2000(MacDougall, 2000), and an interpreter training program for the 2010 case (Same Letter, 2010).

Additionally, Nunavut’s legislative assembly has used the language in sessions since 2008 (CBC). Other than in Nunavut's legislative interpreting we have been unable to find public representation of IUR in any space other than learning materials from the CDRTI.

Unfortunately learners of IUR in colonial times (at least up to ~2014 where accessible research stops) for the most part don’t exist. Learning materials have been published on the CDRTI youtube page, including conversations and semantic quizzes. There is little historical documentation found except two early settler reports that the inuit used signs in their communication, which we have not yet read through in detail. Our information on the language’s typology mostly comes from a doctoral thesis titled “Signs of the arctic: Typological aspects of Inuit Sign Language” by Joke Schuit in 2014.

The learning materials from the CDRTI are freely available online. On their website they say the following: “Circulating ISL video materials at the regional, national, and international levels represents an important step for designing language and cultural heritage materials for general educational purposes, and especially for the development of urgently needed ISL interpreter training programs in Nunavut.” ( https://cdrti.org/en/inuit-sign-language ) (note: ISL is an alternative abbreviation for IUR)