Inupiaq
/ɪˈnuːpɪak
/(also Inupiat /ɪˈnuːpɪat/, Inupik /ɪˈnuːpɪk/)
noun (plural same)
1A member of a group of Inuit people inhabiting northern Alaska.The others looked on and discussed the similarities and differences in the way Nunavummiut and Inupiat skin seals, what parts they eat and how and when they eat it....
- In each case, over 100 people attended, of whom over half were Inupiat.
- ‘The sea ice is thinning,’ says Art Ivanoff, an Inupiat from Unalakleet in west-central Alaska.
2 [mass noun] The Inuit language.The Inuit language is divided into two major dialect groups: Inupik and Yupik....
- The word for poetry in Inupiaq is the same as the word to breathe, and both derive from anerca, the soul.
- The station, built to detect incoming Soviet, then Russian, missiles and aircraft, had brought great change to the people of Kali, or in Inupiaq, the Kalimiut.
adjective
Relating to the Inupiaq or their language.In the Barrow region, local schools broke away from the Bureau of Indian Affairs administration and formed local boards of education more amenable to the teaching of Inupiaq language, history, and customs....
- It's where they gather for Sunday school, Sunday morning and evening worship, and a Wednesday night praise service led by the elders in the Inupiaq language.
- It is also the ancestral home of Inupiat Eskimos and Gwich'in Athabascan Indians, who depend on the bounty of the refuge to survive.
Origin
Inuit, from inuk 'person' + piaq 'genuine'.