Greetings from Hylander/Qimmik

[Hylander]

I've posted on this site many times using the name Qimmik. I've decided to change my user name to Hylander.

Qimmik was the name of my dog, whom I had to put to sleep in January of this year. "Qimmik" is an approximation to the word for "dog" in the Inuit language. My dog Qimmik was a Siberian husky. I wanted to give him an Arctic name, but the word for "dog" in the language of the Siberian Chukchi people was too unpronounceable, so I settled on Qimmik. The q phoneme in the language of the Inuit, incidentally, is a velar pronounced further back in the throat than the k phoneme. I think that in some dialects the word would be transcribed "qimmiq".

Hylander is very close to a Latinized Greek translation of my real surname.

I will try to keep my Qimmik account open, but I'll post under the name Hylander and identify myself as the former Qimmik for a while. I'm hoping the Administrator won't punish me for this.

[mwh]

Qimmik is dead. Long live Hylander!

[jeidsath]

I am sorry to hear about your dog.

Here is Robinson Jeffers -- a Greek and Latin scholar as well as a poet -- about his dog's passing. I visited the house in Carmel earlier this year, and saw the window and grave referred to in the poem.

The House Dog's Grave (Haig, an English bulldog)

[bedwere]

Forester?

Sorry for your canine friend.

[swtwentyman]

I hadn't seen you around for a little while so I checked here. Good to see you're alive and well!

My dog's name is Lucius Junius Brutus. Before him I had a husky mix (named Numa Pompilius) -- they're majestic creatures, aren't they?

[Montcombroux]

Qimmik/Hylander
Sorry to hear of the loss of your dog. For the past three decades, my wife and I have raised Canadian Inuit Sled Dogs - the indigenous dogs that the nomadic Inuit depended on in the high arctic and Greenland for countless centuries before snowmobiles put an end to all that in a little over ten years. Thanks to you, jeidsath, for linking to the poem by Robinson Jeffers, which was a touching tribute to a much loved dog, one that most dog owners can relate to. I have lost many a beloved canine friend and have a well-tended dog cemetery on my property to attest to this.
Michael

[Hylander]

Thanks to all of you for your kind words. I requested this change some time ago--it has finally come through.

I've been on vacation for nearly two weeks with my new dog, Dakota, an Alaskan Malamute, or so I think--he was a stray I adopted shortly after I lost Qimmik, so his parentage is technically obscure.

[Azzageddi]

I'm very sorry to hear about your dog. Condolences. Mine's here on the couch next to me; I occasionally think about how she'll be gone one day and it's too much to bear.

As someone with great interest in the lesser studied languages out there--those of North America, the Paleosiberian ones, those of the Caucasus--you piqued my interest when you mentioned the Chukchi word for "dog" being nigh unpronounceable. After a little research, I found the word: ы'ттьын ([ʔǝttʔǝn] in IPA). I can't blame you for passing up on that one!

[Hylander]

After I put Qimmik to sleep, I adopted a Malamute stray who was being fostered from a shelter. The shelter had named him "Dakota," which I think is a name frequently given to dogs. I thought about giving him a native Alaskan name--there are some here:

https://www.uaf.edu/anlc/resources/

But after two dogs and two cats with exotic names no one could spell or pronounce, I decided "Dakota" was just fine.

[Azzageddi]

After I put Qimmik to sleep, I adopted a Malamute stray who was being fostered from a shelter. The shelter had named him "Dakota," which I think is a name frequently given to dogs. I thought about giving him a native Alaskan name--there are some here:

https://www.uaf.edu/anlc/resources/

But after two dogs and two cats with exotic names no one could spell or pronounce, I decided "Dakota" was just fine.

Heh, I can relate. My dog's name is Caoimhe, an Irish name pronounced nothing like how it's spelled (['kivə], not [kau-im-hi]). I didn't mind explaining the pronunciation at first, but after a while I decided for most situations I'd just tell people it's Kiva. That's how her name's written at the vet's office, for example

If I had a Malamute I'd probably give it a Tlingit or Yupik name

[jeidsath]

This is from the Classical Dictionary's bibliography for their article on "Dogs."

Beasts and Their Names in the Roman Empire

[Markos]

My dog's name is Caoimhe...I'd just tell people it's Kiva.

καλὴν κύνα Κίνα λέγω εἶναι.