If you want your mind to be truly blown, search for Tanya Tagaq’s performances, recorded or on video. She’s an Inuk throat singer who improvises with a band, or with old films like “Nanook of the North”.
I saw her live at the Public Theater in NYC and it was literally awesome.
the lead story revolves around dogs. fuck it, I’m moving.
Greenlandic culture is fascinating, and the language is just one part of it. I wrote about it a while back; among the most interesting parts:
- Due to limited internet connectivity, Greenland doesn’t rely on net neutrality, allowing uses like education and telemedicine to take precedent on the country’s shaky DSL connections.
- The first movie filmed exclusively in Greenland only came out in 1998.
- A hit album in Greenland generally sells about 5,000 copies—which is roughly one copy for every 12 people. Only one album in the U.S., Thriller, has sold a proportional amount.
- A rock band played a big role in Greenland’s eventual autonomy from Denmark.
I see your Greenlandic newscast, and raise you ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅ - from CBC North. Inuktitut sound very similar to Greenlandic. It’s very familiar to Canadian ᑭᕙᓪᓕᑦ ears.
That Greenlandic newscast also had Danish, if my ears didn’t deceive me.
Notice kid in the background at ca. 10:30!
It sounds strikingly close to French (particularly the cadence), but with some of the sounds moved from the upper palate back to the throat–perhaps the influence of Danish, known for its potato-in-the-mouth speech?
Yep, that’s Danish (as are the subtitles).
Funny though. . . you can still make out the “newsreader” cadence.
Is that the one called Antanarjuat? (I may have bungled the spelling, as it’s been over ten years since I saw it.)
YouTube certainly thinks so—its auto-generated closed captions for the video are in French. I imagine a French speaker would have quite a laugh at them…
The movie you’re mentioning (Atanarjuat) is actually Canadian Inuit and came out in 2001, the movie I’m referring to was actually called Heart of Light. It stars a guy named Rasmus Lyberth, a notable musician from Greenland that’s gained some notice in the world music scene.
There was actually a traveling Greenland film festival for a while. Since Heart of Light, a number of films have been released, with the one probably getting the most notice being a documentary about Sume, the rock band that played a major role in Greenland getting home rule in the late '70s.
i thought the same thing when i first heard hungarian. it sounded like it came from an entirely different planet to me.
Greenland has a lot of Danish influence, so it makes a lot of sense.
Thanks! I’ll check those films out.
Yeah, that immediately struck me - she sounds exactly like every other newsreader.
I think you’ve hit on something. Doesn’t really matter which language it’s in, or the natural cadences of that language, it somehow gets that “newsreader” sound…
I think I’ve posted this one before, but for a similar cadence in a very different language:
MULTIPASS
Oh man, you aren’t wrong. The first couple of lines from the auto-captions translate to something like:
“The gynecologists in a church road… the cleaning has made his wednesday, certain pro-Ouattara combatants. Investors estimate the analysts, you must understand me.”
“Not a language, so much as a throat disease”.
