The Inuit Language in Inuit Communities in Canada. [Map]. Natascha Sontag. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2006. 24 X 36 in. * Reviewed by Mary S. Linn It is rare that a linguist is asked to review a map. It is rarer still that one gets to read a map that not only provides the borders of a language family but is truly about the language and its speakers. The Inuit Language in Inuit Communities in Canada is a map of the Inuit language family territory, about the languages, in the languages. The Inuit Language in Inuit Communities in Canada is visually bright, with a true green delineating Canada and light blues, pinks, and yellows overlaid for Inuit dialect territories. The title is off to the right side, and (following the spirit of the map) is in Inuit first (both Roman and syllabic), English, and also French. The map’s projection does include Greenland in the east, most of Alaska and the northeastern tip of the Russian Federation to the west, and parts of all the Canadian provinces to the south. The Inuit territories are outlined and named with major dialect areas and subdialects within these. Communities are marked with a circle, the color of which is determined by the dialect. These community indicators may be split into halves or quarters and colored appropriately depending on how many dialects are found in that community. Community names are in Inuit prominently while the names in English are provided in a smaller, red font. The southernmost Inuit community in Québec includes the Cree name in Cree syllabics as well. The Inuit names are given in both the Roman alphabet and syllabics. Major migrations and relocations are shown with a white circle providing the origin, arrows indicting the route, and the year of the migration or relocation written along the route. The front includes the standard map legend providing a key to the symbols used and then an additional legend giving a key to the Inuit syllabics. The left lower corner includes a chart entitled “Language Retention by Community.” The back of the map provides additional notes on the conventions used to show dialects and migration routes, an overview of the Inuit dialects and subdialects, a history of the Roman and syllabic writing systems, and paragraphs on the relationship between syllabics, identity, and language retention. In addition to the prose, Natascha Sontag provides a bibliography and recommended websites on Inuit language and culture. In the strict criteria of maps—a title, symbols, legend, labels, scale, and a compass—this map falls short. There is no compass rose or north arrow. It may seem obvious that north is at the top of the map but given that the map concerns Inuit language and history, it should not be a given that indigenous orientation to the landscape would necessarily demand that north be the top of the map. It appears that the projection is a Polar Orthographic Projection, with reductions to the far west (Greenland) and east (Alaska and Russia) portions of the map. Yet, nowhere is information on the projection provided. In addition, there are also no scale or latitude and longitude lines, so it is difficult to read the perspective across space. The territory covered by this map is vast, and providing a scale or lines would have not only made reading the map easier, but * This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.