“Ikhaluit” explained

[pne]

While listening to CBC Radio North, I had heard Iqaluit pronounced as (what sounded to me like) Iχaluit.

Today, while looking for something unrelated, I came across something interesting: a map in Fortescue’s A Comparative Manual of Affixes for the Inuit Dialects of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska (jump to page 24 if the link doesn’t take you there).

Specifically, one of the things that map shows is where “non-final /q/ pronounced as [X]”… and that region includes southern Baffin Island, including Iqaluit. (Along with Nunavik and Labrador to the south, but not parts north or west of South Baffin.)

So I wasn’t imagining things!

---

Incidentally, the whole book looks fascinating; pity I can’t find it at the usual booksellers’ sites (and that Google Books doesn’t provide access to the entire contents).

Hm, I wonder whether Hamburg University Library might have a copy? Supposedly, they have a good section on Eskimo-Aleut languages. Still, a copy of my own would be fun… *wistful*