Eskimo Trade Jargon

{{Infobox language

| name = Eskimo Trade Jargon

| altname =

| states = Western Canadian Arctic, northern Alaska

| date =

| familycolor = Pidgin

| family = North Alaskan Iñupiaq-based pidgin

| dia1 = Herschel Island Eskimo Pidgin

| iso3 = none

| glotto = eski1266

| glottorefname = Herschel Island Eskimo Trade Jargon

| script = Latin Alphabet

| ethnicity = Inuit, European whalers

}}

Eskimo Trade Jargon was an Inuit pidgin used by the Mackenzie River Inuit as a trade language with the Athabaskan peoples to their south, such as the Gwich'in (Loucheux). It was reported by Stefánsson (1909), and was apparently distinct from the Athabaskan-based Loucheux Jargon of the same general area.{{cite journal | last = Stefánsson | first = V. | title = The Eskimo Trade Jargon of Herschel Island | journal = American Anthropologist | volume = 11 | issue = 2 | pages = 217–232| date = Apr–Jun 1909 | jstor = 659464 | doi=10.1525/aa.1909.11.2.02a00050| hdl = 2027/hvd.32044086537768 | hdl-access = free }}

A reduced form of the pidgin was used for ships' trade at Herschel Island off the Arctic coast near Alaska.{{cite journal | last = Schuhmacher | first = W. W. | title = Eskimo Trade Jargon: Of Danish or German Origin? | journal = International Journal of American Linguistics | volume = 43 | issue = 3 | pages = 226–227 | publisher = The University of Chicago Press | date = July 1977 | doi=10.1086/465485}}

History

Eskimo Trade Jargon formed as European whalers interacted with the local Inuit peoples during the 19th century, likely helped by the difficulty europeans had learning Inuit languages. The pidgin went extinct sometime in the 20th century.{{Cite journal |last=Stefánsson |first=V. |date=1909 |title=The Eskimo Trade Jargon of Herschel Island |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/659464?seq=11 |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=217-227 |issn=0002-7294}}{{Cite web |title=APiCS Online - Survey chapter: Eskimo Pidgin |url=https://apics-online.info/surveys/76 |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=apics-online.info}}

Dialects

As Eskimo Trade Pidgin emerged in several locations simultaneously the various areas it emerged in had different dialects of the pidgin. These dialects included: Herschel Island Pidgin, Point Barrow Pidgin, Kotzebue Pidgin, and Point Hope pidgin. While Eskimo Trade Jargon was similar to Slavey Jargon it was different enough that there wasn't enough mutual intelligibility to allow for communication between the two pidgins.

Phonology

class="wikitable" \|+Consonants ! colspan="2" \| !Bilabial !Labio-Dental !Labio-Velar !Alveolar !Palatal !Velar !Glottal
rowspan="2" \|Plosive !Unvoiced \|p \| \| \|t \|c \|k \| rowspan="2" \|q
Voiced \|b \| \| \|d \| \|g
colspan="2" \|Nasal \|m \| \| \|n \| \|ŋ \|
colspan="2" \|Trill \| \| \| \|r \| \| \|
rowspan="2" \|Fricative !Voiceless \| \| \| \|s \|Ç \| \|
Voiced \| \|v \|ɣ \| \| \| \|ɦ
rowspan="2" \|Lateral !Voiceless \| \| \| \|ɬ \| \| \|
Voiced \| \| \| \|l \| \| \|
colspan="2" \|Approximant \| \| \| \| \|j \| \|

class="wikitable"

|+Consonants

! colspan="2" |

rowspan="2" |Plosive

| rowspan="2" |q

colspan="2" |Nasal

|ŋ

colspan="2" |Trill

rowspan="2" |Fricative

!Voiceless

|Ç

Voiced

|ɣ

|ɦ

rowspan="2" |Lateral

!Voiceless

|ɬ

Voiced

colspan="2" |Approximant

class="wikitable" \|+Vowels ! !Front !Central !Back
Close \|i \| \|u
Close-Mid \|e \| \|o
Open \| \|a \|

class="wikitable"

|+Vowels

Lexicon

The Lexicon of ETJ is very diverse, while most words are from either an Inuit language or English words from other languages are found. Of all the Inuit languages the one with the most vocabulary in ETJ is North Slope dialect of Iñupiaq. Other contributing languages include Hawaiian Pidgin, Chinook Jargon, Danish, Portuguese, and possibly Old Icelandic.

Words would often undergo significant changes after being loaned into Eskimo Trade Jargon, making them unrecognizable from their original forms. Examples being the words u' ra and pau' from the English words Rice and powder respectively.