Nature and Culture Meld: The Complexity of Arctic Indigenous Language Preservation from an Integrated Ecolinguistic Perspective

As the importance of preserving indigenous languages has been highlighted in different fora and numerous contexts, the Arctic appears to be no exception in this regard. The vitality and sustainability of Arctic indigenous languages pervade the discourse on the polar region and lie at the core of the Arctic Indigenous Language Vitality Initiative. To explore the complexity of the endeavor, this conceptual paper analyzes the framing of Arctic indigenous language preservation in selected academic publications as well as institutional documents. Since the use of biomorphic metaphors in the context of language preservation raises numerous doubts regarding their socio-political implications, this paper attempts to address this issue from the perspective of ecolinguistics perceived as both analytical and conceptual lenses to demonstrate that its three complementary strands of research may help bridge the nature-culture divide in general and provide an integrated approach to the preservation of Arctic indigenous languages in particular.