NANA REGION VERNACULAR

“Your accent is starting to change,” a friend recently told me.

“Really?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“When you talk, it’s more sing-song, your intonation goes up and down. And the way you pronounce certain words...”

“Huh, I hadn’t even noticed.”

A long-time friend recently commented on my changing accent during one of our phone conversations. Apparently I am beginning to sound more like Kotzebue people! I was pleasantly surprised to hear this especially considering that I’m often told that I sound like a white person. After she had mentioned this, I began to consciously listen to myself and I found that I do say things a certain way and that I couldn’t really help it.

It’s funny how language works. Since I have been back in Kotzebue (for four years now), I have acquired, or rather, re-acquired, a number of habits and mannerisms that I had all but forgotten after living in the city. Many people in the NANA region often use body language to express themselves. Some examples: 1) the eyebrow raise 2) the face scrunch 3) the shrug.

The eyebrow raise occurs when someone asks you a question and you answer “yes” by simply raising both your eyebrows. A lot of nurses tell me that when they first started working in the region, they thought that patients were ignoring them when they asked them a question, only to find out later that they were indeed answering “yes,” but just with their eyebrows. I find that I do this a lot more, especially when I am in Kivalina. Why answer vocally when a simple eyebrow raise would suffice?

The face scrunch is something that is particular to this region, it would seem.The face scrunch, or nose scrunch, occurs when you answer a “no” by scrunching your nose. My aaqa did this a lot and it’s a very cute gesture. My little cousin takes it one step further and scrunches very quickly, so that she looks like a squirrel or bunny rabbit.

The shoulder shrug is self-explanatory - when you don’t know something, you shrug your shoulders. You also shrug your shoulders when you've stated something and you really don't have that much more to say about it.

I find that it is easy for me to transition from one form of communication style to another. When I am speaking to family, my accent comes out a bit but when I am speaking formally, i.e. to strangers or in formal situations, my city accent comes out. It’s not that I am trying to be two-faced, it’s just a way of adapting yourself to various situations. My mom has the same habit, when she is on the telephone with a stranger or formal acquaintance, she sounds professional and formal. When she is talking to family from home, her accent comes out, intonation and all. It’s actually funny to notice the huge change that occurs.  

I think it’s especially cute when non-Inupiaq kids pick up NANA region accent and vernacular. My Latina friend and her husband are originally from California and have been raising their children in Kotzebue for the last several years. I think it’s so adorable when their kids speak with an accent and use Inupiaq expressions like “arriii!” or “I want to follow!” Nurses will often mention how their kids are picking up the accent as well.

Here are some common NANA region expressions:

1. “Arriii” - an expression of displeasure, dislike. A very Inupiaq phrase - people, especially kids, say it when they are whining or complaining.
2. “To follow” - when you want to go with someone. Adult: “I’m going to the store.” Kid: “I wanna follow!”
3. “Yuh” (as in, yes, yeah, uh huh). This is one of my favorites lol, especially how Kivalina people say it.
4. “I never” as in “I didn’t” - “I never eat yet” etc.
5. “How many” instead of “several.” For example, “I haven’t been home in how many years.” I noticed that my brother-in-law started saying this after having been married to my sister for...how many years.

Some other common practices:

1. Speak in the present tense whenever possible. This is especially true when story-telling - a storyteller will recount a story in the present tense, as if in his/her mind he or she is reliving the story at that exact moment.
2. NANA region vernacular seems a bit passive, at least, from my perspective. For example, if you want someone to hand you something, some people will say “Try hand me that,” or “try move.” Perhaps it's a way of being more polite or wanting to seem less demanding. I prefer to be a little more direct and say “Can you hand me that please?”
3. Many English-first speakers will anglicize Inupiaq words, like adding English suffixes to Inupiaq words. For example, I heard someone once say “It’s alapaa-er there” (“alapaa” means “it’s cold”). When children are talking of someone who qivets (“qivet” means “to sulk”), they will call that person a “qiveter," or "so-and-so is qiveting."