The Inuktitut dialect of Inuit, a member of the Eskimo-Aleut language family, is spoken by over 30,000 natives of eastern Canada, including Quebec and Nunavut. It is easily understood throughout the Inuit communities of Canada, Greenland, and northern Alaska. This unique dictionary encompasses almost every word spoken by the Inuit peoples of North America, including a good many ways to say snow, though fewer than rumoured. Care had been taken to include terms unique to particular Inuit communities. Readers will also find special grammar appendices, a introduction to the language's writing system, and sections with family terms and geographic names. All entries have been romanised for easy use.

The most comprehensive Yup'ik dictionary in existence, the second edition of this important work now adds extensive research on Central Alaskan Yup'ik, enhancing the forty years of research done by Steven A. Jacobson on the Yup'ik language and dialects. Over these decades, Jacobson has combed through records of explorers, linguists, missionaries, and anyone who has come in contact with the actively migratory Yup'ik people. Combined with information from native Yup'ik speakers, that research has led to a richly detailed dictionary that covers the entire language and all its dialects. The dictionary also offers sections on Yup'ik spelling, early vocabulary, demonstrative words, and important intersections of Yup'ik language and culture such as the kayak, dogsled, parka, and old-style dwellings.

Contains a collection of twenty-three essays originally appearing in the journal "Natural Language and Linguistic Theory."

Preceded by an ethnographical memoranda concerning the arctic Eskimos in Alaska and Siberia by John W. Kelly.