Language, Politics, and Social Interaction in an Inuit Community By Donna Patrick Reviews Counterpointed

Donna Patrick

The issue of language preservation and endangerment has attracted a great deal of attention in recent sociolinguistic and language planning research. My 2003 book, Language, Politics and Social Interaction in an Inuit Community, contributes to this body of work, examining the historical, political, economic, and social dimensions of Inuktitut language maintenance in a multilingual Inuit community in Northern Quebec. The reviews of the book that appear in this journal, by Lawrence Van Horn, Michael Downs, and Ellen Schnepel, have raised a number of important concerns regarding the book’s audience, its relation to a broader circumpolar context, and the data that form part of the ethnographic component of language use. In what follows, I will briefly respond to these concerns.

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