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From: (Floyd L. Davidson)
Subject: Re: Most recent common ancestors
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 21:55:41 -0900
References: <1137338990.456458.231910@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> <mo4ms15t5bs77ev0ds8bhs690882gdmb15@4ax.com><1137417797.694144.242190@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com><1137537775.768972.229840@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com><871wz53cgn.fld@apaflo.com><1137644882.750856.87470@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>


wrote:
>In speaking of the most precisely correct terms, yes, of course. The
>trans-Bering Strait families are Yupiq. In my first post on the topic,

That is Yupik.

>I was using the term in its broadest sense, based on the Inuk language,

"Inuk" is one individual Inuit person, not the name of the language.
The language is "Inuit". Interestingly, when using the terms they
use, Inupiaq is the name of the language, and that also just happens
to be the word for an individual person.

>to mean everyone who is part of the circumpolar swath of Arctic peoples
>from northeastern Asia to Greenland.

Ouch. That's a *bad* idea. There are more Chakotkan people in
northeastern Asia than there are Eskimos. There are also Aleut
people in Alaska, and of course several different Athabaskan
people (Gwich'in, Dig Hitan, Koyukon) in Arctic Alaska not to
mention those in Canada.

Inuit is a very poor word to use as term for either all Eskimos
or worse yet for any pan-Arctic grouping.

>Is the weather up there as strange
>as we've been told - not enough snow, warmer than normal, etc.? Best,
>Bronwen

Well, I wouldn't say not enough snow (Barrow may be getting
more), but there is *no* question that it has been progressively
getting warmer for at least the 4 decades that I've been an
Alaskan. It also certainly seems to have become significantly
warmer in just that past decade. For example, I first came to
Barrow in 1997, and we used to see -40 F/C some time in late
November or early December every year. I doubt that it has been
-40 for two whole days in the past 3 or 4 years now. It
probably did not get that cold at all last year, even for a
minute, and do date this year our coldest has only been about
-28F/-33C. (January and February are the coldest months here,
so it might still get colder than that.)

Prior to living in Barrow I lived very close to Fairbanks,
and it is positively *mild* there now compared to what it was
30 or 40 years ago. (The Interior of Alaska gets *much* colder
than the coastal areas, even for the Arctic Ocean coast.)

Global warming is certainly very real. Just exactly what is
contributing to it seems to be very controversial though.

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>;
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

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