Oh how Stephen Harper probably wished he was Pat Sajak earlier this week, so he could have given away a vowel.
Specifically, Harper would have gladly given away an extra u that he and his people accidentally used on Monday.
That u, which any English grammarian would tell you is normally essential after a q, was added to the name of Nunavut's capital, changing it from Iqaluit to Iqualuit, in a press release.
Turns out one extra vowel can mean a lot more than just some extra prize money on Wheel of Fortune.
The name of Nunavut's capital, Iqaluit, means many fish in Inuktitut. However, when that extra u is tacked on after the q, the meaning suddenly changes to "people with unwiped bums," according to Sandra Inutiq of the Nunavut's language commissioner's office.
This almost sounds like a prank from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, a comedy/news program in the United States. It seems ridiculous that: a) the one extra letter would make such a significant difference; and b) the Inuit have a word for a group of people who don't wipe themselves.
But there it is, straight from the territory's language commissioner and one would hope she wouldn't be playing a prank. (Although, if she was, you'd have to admit, it would be a damn funny one.)
After this faux pas, I'm sure the prime minister just wanted to crawl in a hole, preferably not one with either many fish or unwiped bums.
But let's face it, this is not the kind of screw up that will, or should, be the undoing of a minority government.
Should the people of Nunavut be insulted? Yes, it is a capital city and it should have been spelled correctly. But it's not like it was an intentional potshot at the people of Nunavut or their language and they shouldn't hold a grudge for too long.
And the Prime Minister's Office did the right thing by admitting it had made the the gaffe. However, another problem arose when admitting to the mistake that wasn't handled very well by the PMO.
Harper's office should have simply said: "We made a typo, it wasn't intentional but we intend to correct it and we will do our utmost to never do it again." That would have been simple and the end of it. Instead, Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas, who has poured gasoline on fires he was supposed to put out on previous occasions (communion crackers anyone?), didn't handle the situation diplomatically.
He admitted the typo and said the PMO had already corrected it. But instead of leaving it, Soudas decided to do what can only be called his best impersonation of a kid on a playground saying "Neener, neener," and pointed a finger at the media, saying, in essence that all of the media have done it as well.
Sure, at least some of the media have admitted to making this gaffe in the past, including The Canadian Press, of which the Times-Herald is a member, but it was Soudas's unprofessional attack on the media that was wholly unnecessary.
Instead of just trying to clean up the mistake and leave it at that, Soudas decided to attack the messenger, only adding to a situation.
Ultimately, despite Soudas's continued negative behaviour, this is not an issue that should affect people's views of the Harper government.
Yes, it shouldn't have been made (and I highly doubt you'll ever see a press release from the PMO with Toronto or Edmonton misspelled) but it's a simple human error.
The errors a government is going to be penalized for should be major policy and spending mistakes, not simple human errors.
Jason Small can be reached at 691-1255.
The art of turning small errors in to brush fires
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Comments
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- Just a thought
- - September 18, 2009 at 14:03:33
Re: It seems ridiculous that: a) the one extra letter would make such a significant difference;
Try taking the L out of public. Two very different meanings. -
- C
- - September 18, 2009 at 13:26:48
It's pretty rich to make fun of the PMO for a mistake that happens all the time, when Mr. Small can't even get basic details right. The people of Nunavut are Inuit, not Innu (yes, there's a difference) and Nunavut's languages commissioner is actually Alexina Kublu.
The PMO ought to know better when writing a news release, but this kind of thing happens all the time. Nunavummiut mostly just laugh it off. Soudas' response can hardly be considered neener, neener.
And given the howling factual errors Mr. Small makes in his column, it's pretty rich to get all full of bluster over a superfluous u.
None of this is to either endorse or condemn the Conservative record on Northern issues, but all of Mr. Small's screw-ups in this piece pretty much negate the point, dubious to begin with, he was trying to make.
Oh and with regard to B): Inuktitut (the language of the Inuit, it's probably worth pointing out) has a completely different grammatical structure and what appear to the English eye as words are actually often complete sentences.
The irony here of course is that all these mistakes add up to a column that's best used as toilet paper, which really is appropriate in this situation, don't you think? -
- Sandra
- - September 18, 2009 at 12:39:46
Some points I'd like to make on this article.
- I am not the Languages Commissioner for Nunavut. That position is held by Alexina Kublu. I do, however, work for the office.
- Regarding your statement it seems ridiculous that: ... b)the Inuit have a word for a group of people who dont wipe themselves. It's not that the word means it is a group of people with unwiped bums, it is simply plural as in adding an 's' at the end of a word in English. When you add 'it' at the end of a word in Inuktitut (language of Inuit), it becomes plural.
- English and other languages also do have terms relating to remnants of fecal matter, dangleberry comes to mind.
- Inuit and the Innu are two different groups of people with different languages.
- I think it is fair to say there was not just anger and annoyance, but some people here thought the slip up was quite hilarious.
