I am recording the word kunlangeta only because I had never heard it used before until this afternoon. According to an article in the New Yorker, ‘The Yupik Eskimos use the term kunlangeta to describe a man who repeatedly lies, cheats, steals, and takes sexual advantage of women, according to a 1976 study by Jane M. Murphy, an anthropologist then at Harvard University. She asked an Eskimo [Inuit] what the group would typically do with a kunlangeta, and he replied, “Somebody would have pushed him off the ice when nobody else was looking.”’. It is said to be coming in useful in Whitehall at the moment.
Love it – I will add it to my vocabulary – not to frequently, but I can see it might have an outing or two. Bridget
Thanks for this Charles – let’s hope Sue Gray knows the term.
I’m afraid that, like cake, “Eskimo” is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays, as Gwendolyn Fairfax might have put it. Many Indigenous people in North America and Greenland consider the term racially charged and offensive–not that this is your intention for one moment, of course!
Dear Ivan, Yes, I knew that, but as it was within the original quotation, I didn’t think it right or legitimate to change. Charles
Thank you, Ivan – you beat me to it. The appropriate word is “Inuit,” what the northern Canadian peoples call themselves.
I have added Inuit in square brackets. Not sure that is adequate. Charles