"T S Sherlock" wrote:
Paul
Eskimo means "eaters of raw meat" and was the name Canadian Indians used
when talking about the Inuits.

Nahhh. It ain't so. But it does make for a good story...

The Inuits have always referred to themselves as Inuit (the Yupik variant is
Yuit), which means the "real people."

Inuit and Yupik are the same word in two different languages.
They both derive from same Proto-Eskimo word (which means that
2000 years ago, the ancestors of both Inuit and Yupik people
spoke one language, and the word they used to mean the same
thing is something like "Inuy".

It does mean "Real People", but in a way that is very difficult
to explain to most English speakers because of their religious
convictions. It actually means a human in the sense of being
the original owner of a human spirit. That would be as opposed
to a non-human masquerading as a human, which may well look and
sound exactly like a human, but might have the spirit of a bear.

(If you think that is unreasonable, just go annoy someone you
suspect of being a bear, and see of they don't just turn into
one...)

It may not be as negative as the N word, but it is definitely antiquated,
sort of like calling Native American's "Indians".

That's silly. First, it isn't antiquated in any way. It is the
one and the only word that refers to all Eskimo people,
languages, or cultures. If you want to reference them all,
there is no other way to do it. (Which is a common requirement
when speaking to Alaskans... or to linguists.)

Second, the same problem applies to "Native American's"
vs. "Indians". Some people don't like one, some don't like the
other. But regardless, the two words have *different*
meanings! Indians are American Indians. Native Americans are
Indians, Eskimo, Aleuts, Hawaiians, Samoans and probably a couple
other types of people who are not Indians.

Native American is a word that was coin a few decades ago for
use by the government....


"Paul Schilter" ""paulschilter\"@comcast dot net" wrote in message
...
Jim,
Didn't know that. Where does the term Eskimos come from? I take it they
wish to be called "Inuit"?
Paul


Jim Carter wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

Well, she was planning to sell Sterno to Eskimos, but she drank it,

instead.
......................snip..............

Good Morning Harry.

I am sure you did not know that using the word "Eskimo" to describe the
"Inuit" people of the far north, is like calling a black man the " N "
word.

James D. Carter


--
Floyd L. Davidson http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)