ARCTIC LANGUAGES An Awakening

• Main Authors: Edited Dirmid, R. F. Collis
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Population; greenlander*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.159.3220; http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000861/086162e.pdf

Printed in FranceThe word is the greatest power human beings have. With words you can wound others or make them happy-for life. (Asineq, an East Greenlander) Preface At its eighteenth session in 1974, the General Conference of Unesco authorized the Director-General to undertake studies on Arctic cultures (Resolution 3.31) in order to promote co-operation among research institutes and scholars from countries with Arctic population groups. The present publication is a part of the Unesco Arctic project aimed at safeguarding the non-physical heritage of Arctic peoples in its linguistic dimensions. It is the outcome of three Unesco meetings of experts, held respectively in Paris (1978), Novosibirsk (1980) and Copenhagen (1987), that worked out conceptual approaches to and practical plans for the study of Arctic cultures and languages. The work is a study of Arctic languages written in an interdisciplinary