Eskimo

Eskimo or Esquimau is a term used for a group of people who inhabit the circumpolar region (excluding circumpolar Scandinavia and all but the easternmost portions of Russia). There are two main groups of Eskimos: the Inuit of northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland and the Yupik of western Alaska and the Russian Far East (the latter group is known as Siberian Yupik or Yuit). The Eskimos are related to the Aleuts and the Alutiiq from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska as well as the Sug'piak from the Kodiak Islands and as far as the Prince William Sound in South Central Alaska. Inuit is sometimes wrongly used as a synonym for Eskimo.

Related Topics:
Circumpolar - Inuit - Alaska - Canada - Greenland - Yupik - Siberian Yupik - Yuit - Aleut - Aleutian Islands

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Eastern Eskimo peoples - the Inuit - speak Inuktitut, and western Alaskan Eskimo communities - the Yup'ik - speak Yup'ik. There is something of a dialect continuum between the two, and the westernmost dialects of Inuktitut could be viewed as forms of Yup'ik. Kinship culture also differs between east and west, as eastern Inuit lived with cousins of both mother and father, but western Inuit lived in paternal kinship groups.

Related Topics:
Inuktitut - Yup'ik - Dialect continuum

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